Stockholm Syndrome
by Zombielicious
Summary: The world is over run by the living dead. People who are alive are left picking up the pieces of the world. This is the story of a group of surivors.
1. They're Too Late

**They're Too Late**

She took one, horrible intake of breath. It felt like her lungs were shriveling up inside of her and crumbling to dust. Her lungs, along with her heart. The heart strings and ventricles slowly loosing their strength and somehow, she could still hear her horribly loud heart beat in her ears as if her heart wasn't breaking inside of her.

Tatiana dropped the cold channel changer she had in her shaking hand and uttered out the most feeble whimper. Blood splattered at her feet as her father fell to the ground at her feet, specks of blood flying at her socked feet. The creature that had ripped her father's throat out slowly brought its white, dead gaze from her father's now motionless body to her. Whatever was left of his face resembled a look of hunger. Tatiana shrieked as the monster lunged at her and she jumped back. Blood smeared over the wood flooring, Tati noticed. She screamed again and turned around and sprinted into the kitchen. She could hear the frustrated moans of the zombie from the den as she ran into the hallway and into her bedroom. It was the safest place she could think of.

She locked the door in a rush, and grabbed the wood chair at her desk and shoved it under the doorknob to secure it. She let herself fall to the ground in a heap of convulsing sobs and whimpers. The creature...its face was caked with dry blood and its teeth black. It had worn a worn looking, ripped black suit, blood stained. His hand was not a hand, but a bloody, boney, dry stump. The creature's face was decayed and she could have sworn she had spotted bits of pink muscle on its face-obviously something had ripped the skin from his face.

Tatiana crawled towards the wall and burst into another rack of dry sobs as she heard something pound against the door. She could hear the monster moaning his frustration and hunger from outside the door. It seemed as if the pounds of the creature shook the entire house.

"What...," Tatiana said to herself, "What...will I do?"

Her father was dead. He was partially eaten by some freak thing that had broken into her house. And now she was alone and that thing would do the exact god damn thing to her if she just sat her. Wiping her face with the back of her hand, she rushed to her closet to put on a pair of jeans and grab a sweatshirt. The moans were getting more desperate outside her bedroom door as she hurriedly put on her shoes and grabbed her car keys from her bedside table. Also on her bedside table was a picture of her and her Dad at a local fair.

"You'll always be my little girl" He had constantly told her.

She nodded to this thought as a stronger pound at the door joined in with the frustrated pounds. She opened up her window just as she heard the thick wood of the door splintering, despite the block at the door. Tatiana looked in horror at the door before lifting a leg up over the window sil and placed a foot into the soft grass before lifting the other to the ground. She closed the window and ran around the side of the house before almost slipping on the dewed grass.

Chaos.

The pool of their neighbor's was once a beautiful, crystal blue. It was now crimson with blood and there was a convulsing body inside the pool. She could hear so many screams around her, she spun around in circles just as her head did. People were running out of their houses, only to be attacked by people- but Tatiana guessed that they didn't seem so person like anymore. Just as a woman was heading towards her mini-van with her car keys jangling in her hand, one of the creatures slammed her against the car door and started nibbling into her neck, her shrieks were dreadful. Blood slowly splashed onto the sparkling green paint and trickled down onto the driveway.

Tatiana screamed and ran towards her little red car sitting in the black drive-way and shakily slid the key into the lock just as she heard a moan behind her. She shrieked and dared to look behind her and she saw some woman that she didn't know, blood dripping from her nose(the bone was visible) and many teeth missing from her mouth. She quickly opened the car door and slammed it shut just as the bloody woman lunged at her, her bloody fists pounding against the glass of the window weakly at first, blood splattering on the glass. As Tatiana rushed to shove the key into the ignition, the woman pounded against the window again and this time Tati could hear the sound of glass cracking.

As the tiny car roared to life, Tatiana looked to the woman scratching at the window and then put the car in reverse and backed out of the drive way. The woman tripped over her bare, bloody feet and stumbled to the black pavement of the driveway. She collected herself and lunged at the hood of the car, but Tatiana sped down the street and tried not to look into the mirror to see if the woman was chasing after her.

She was mentally in pieces, but she couldn't think of what to do. Where was she going to go? The police station? That was the best idea-her father had been the D.A.

Tatiana glanced at the houses she sped past. Some lawns and houses seemed like the chaos had not touched them, but some seemed as if hell had graced them. People even laid on the lawn, the creatures on top of their helpless bodies. ...Eating them. Tatiana took her glassy eyes from the sights and tried to concentrate on the road. Dark cement and deep, golden lines. There seemed to be even no cars on the roads, as if the city was deserted and she was the only one driving.

She was amazed with herself. She had went from being paniced, scared, and horrified at her house to being brave enough to get to her car and start driving away. The change was amazing, in her mind. She had always thought that she could never make it without her father, but all she could feel was her heart gently pounding in her chest...it ached.

The sun was just rising as she drove onto a main road and she saw a stationary car in the middle of the road. She slowed down and stopped next to the car and stared on in horror as a young man was fighting against one of those creatures, this creature looking like a young girl. The man was screaming and holding back the girl, looking as thou he was using all of his strength. The girl had the most evil look on her face and other than looking so hellish, she seemed normal. She hissed and lunged at him and almost got him, but he somehow lifted up his leg and pinned her by the neck to the passenger window.

Tatiana looked on as blood started spurting from the girl's neck, spraying the man and the interior of the car. The man didn't seem like one of them, or else he wouldn't have been struggling to get the girl away from him, but to get out of the car. She knew she was stupid, but she got of her car and the fresh air that hit her filled her with vigor and strength. She ran to the driver's side of the car and opened it, the man looked up at her and stared at her as if she was a saint.

Grabbing onto the man's hands which were placed on the dashboard and the shoulder of the seat, she pulled him with new found strength from the car and rather harshly onto the pavement. The girl slumped against the passenger window and her bloody looking eyes lolled in her head for a moment before they re-focused on her. The girl hissed, blood lightly spraying from her mouth and lunged at her. Tatiana quickly slammed the door in her face before the little girl had the chance to take a bite out of her arm or hand. The girl slapped her head against the glass and started smashing her tiny fists against the window.

The man picked himself up from the wet pavement and looked at the little girl and then to Tati before motioning towards the two creatures coming towards them on the street. Tatiana gasped and cried, "Get in!"

The man got into the passenger seat as Tatiana ran along the side of the car to get into the driver's seat. Once she was in position, she slammed her foot against the gas pedal and sped forward onto the highway. The sound of the motor and the wind hitting the car was the only sound she could focus on as she concentrated on the road. She glanced at the man in the passenger seat. He seemed slightly rattled by the attack, blood was slowing drying on his face. He had dark, slightly curly hair and matching dark eyes. He was fairly tall and wore a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, and tennis shoes.

She looked back at the road and spotted a car on the side of the road. As they came to pass it, she noticed the smoke coming from under the hood of the car...and the red stained windows. Tatiana shook her head and looked back to the road, not slowing down. She knew if she even got out of the car to see if there was anyone in the car, it would just be wasting time.

"Are...," She began, "Okay? Did that little girl hurt you?"

"No. I'm fine. You're brave for just rushing out and saving me like that," The man replied to her.

"I thought I could save you...and I did didn't I?" Tatiana said, smiling slightly. As long as she could save someone, even if she didn't know what the hell was going on, made her feel good.

"Yes. Thank you," The man told her, his voice sincere. She could feel her dark gaze upon her.

"It's alright. But you owe me. If I get in a jam, make sure you're there to get me out," She said, smiling just a bit. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was amazed that she could even think of smiling at a time like this.

"Its a deal," He said.

"I'm Tatiana, Tatiana St. Clair," She said, as they turned a corner on the highway. She was happy that there hadn't been anymore of those creatures roaming about on the road and that there weren't many houses nor people around these country-ish areas.

"I'm Alex Korolev," He replied quietly. Tati could tell he had a quiet demeanor about him and she could admire that.

"Its a pleasure to meet you, under these...circumstances," Tatiana replied. She glanced at him again and he seemed...so sad.

_It was the little girl..._

"If you don't mind me asking...who was the little girl with you?"

"That was my little sister," Alex replied.

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked," Tatiana asked, roughly sighing to herself.

"No. It's okay. Things happen," He replied to her apologies.

"My father...I watched him being attacked by one of those things. But, I don't think that was much of a consolation," She told him.

The highway led off into the inner-city, once a place which Tati loved to be. The inner-city seemed...deserted. Tatiana slowed down to barely a crawl as they passed by deserted cars, some with the doors wide open, and buses. The sidewalks were empty and even some street lights were still on even thou it was 8 in the morning and sun above them was shining as thou this was the most grand day on Earth. Shaking herself from her thoughts, she quickly turned on the radio. Were there people alive still able to report news to them?

When she clicked on the radio, they heard a loud chorus of beeping noises, followed by a most robotic voice reporting a civil defense warning. The warning told them to stay in their homes, lock their doors, and to not let anyone in their homes. Help would be on its way soon. "Not very likely?" Tatiana guessed out loud. She clicked the scan button on the radio and was only met by the same robotic-even scary- warning. She decided to turn off the radio after discovering that every station had this same warning.

"Look!" Alex cried, pointing towards the road.

Tatiana looked up and spotted a flock of birds circling in the air above something in the road. Tatiana drove up to the spot and looked down as she spotted a person lying in the road. The person was so decayed, it looked as if it had melted and was now stuck onto the pavement. She screamed as she saw the two, glazed over eyes move in the skull. The jaw moved in a motion of talking and she saw the hand reach up towards the window, towards her.

"Where...where are we going to go?" Tatiana gasped to Alex as she drove down the road, doing anything to get away from the horrid image.

"I heard on the radio a while ago that civilians could meet at the police station," He replied.

"Okay. The police station it is," She mumbled, almost emotionlessly.


	2. Ever and After

**Ever and After**

The police station was a large building built with what seemed like large white bricks. There were many windows-Tati thought it made it more appealing to look at. It was a fairly large building too, so there had to be alot of civilians cooped up here with some of the cops. And they were probally figuring out how to get out of the city. Tatiana pulled up to the front of the building and glanced around at the front lawn of the building.

There was a large fountain, still spewing out sparkling water, and a few benches that were damp from morrning dew. There were a couple flower beds with many tulips, daisys, and begonias. There was nothing to be afraid of. Well, unless some of those creatures decided to follow them on there way into the building, but from the looks of things, everything seemed pretty deserted in the city. Maybe most of the civilains had somehow escaped and the other half were inside.

Tatiana looked at Alex and said, "Well?"

"Now or never..." He replied solemnly and he opened the passenger door as Tati opened up her door. The air smelled like gasoline and...blood. They walked side by side towards the front doors, which seemed to be made of a thick black metal. Both her and Alex were looking around franticly, and she was sure that he was praying like she was that none of those things would be comming after them. When they made it to the front doors, Alex placed a hand on the door handle and looked at her.

"What?" She asked curiously. She still was glancing around, paranoidly.

"What if there are a bunch of those zombie-"

"Don't call them that!" Tatiana interupted. Her stomach churned and she felt her eyes sting a little bit. she thought of her dad being cooped up in the house with one of those things. A zombie. But when a zombie...bit a person, wouldn't that person turn into a zombie too? Was her dad a zombie now? Was he slowly turning into a zombie? She told herself the cold wind of the morrning was just burning her eyes, making them watery. Not tears.

"Okay, what if theres a bunch of those things in there?" He asked, sounded breathless. She looked at him, his eyes seemed ever so glassy, what she imagined her eyes looked like. But he looked like he been through hell and back, bags under his eyes, flecks of almost fresh looking blood spotting his face. _I can't blame him...he almost had to kill his sister. He had to watch her..._

"Then...we go somewhere else," Tatiana reassured him, her voice soft and caring, and she placed her hand on top of his on the door handle and opened it. They were met with cool air conditioning and Tati shakily looked around the police department lobby and she let out the held up air in her lungs. Everything seemed clear from where they stood. They slowly filed in and Alex made sure to close the door from behind them. He locked the door too. Tatiana thought of other people trying to get into the building, but then there was the aspect of having the zombies getting in...She was shocked to find herself calling those things zombies now.

The police department lobby was fairly large, but mostly empty. There was a large desk in the middle of the room, in front of the that the Scarletview Police Department insignia was placed on the floor in colorful tiles. There were some community message boards placed on the walls, a large map of the city, and pictures of deputies, sergants, and the police cheif. Tatiana spotted a picture of her father hanging proudly on the wall just below the police cheif. She sighed sadly to herself and then looked to Alex.

"Do you think we she look around at the front desk or something?" Tatiana inquired from him. He turned to her and shrugged. She walked around the front desk and sat in the comfortable leather chair that was quite far away from the desk. _Maybe someone had quickly gotten up because something had came in here. Who knows. I should stop thinking these thoughts and concentrate on finding help. I'm not alone anymore, I can't just sit here, even thou I feel like just breaking down and crying. _Tatiana searched through the files on the desk, but none of them mentions any zombies, crazy dieseases or anything like that. The computer on the desk was turned on to the police main site, but it seemed the computer was frozen.

"Anything?" Alex said, leaning against the desk.

"No, nothing," She replied, "If anything, I'd hate to say that this probally just started happening...this...epidemic."

Tatiana got up from the desk and rifled through the files one more time. There was a file on one of the new deputies of the department, a few on a couple wanted criminals, and one on an upcoming case in court. But nothing that was truely important. Tati wiped the sweat that was forming on her brow and she looked around. There were two wooden doors with glass windows in them on either side of them.

"If I remember correctly...they lead to some spare offices. We should check them," Tatiana told him. She was racking her brain for ideas of what to do. But nothing truely came to mind.

What are you _really_ supposed to do when the world is taken over by flesh eating monsters?

"And you know...how?" Alex asked her as she walked over towards the door that was on her right. She glanced back at him and said, "My father was the district attourney. I've been here more times than I can count."

"That's reassuring," He told her as she opened the side office door. Before they had both stepped into the room, Tatiana shrieked and had ran back into Alex. There was a dead body on top of a desk, blood dripping down from the files and papers and onto the floor. There were two more bodies grouped together in the corner, slumped against the wall. And another face down on the floor, laying in a puddle of blood. Two of them had police uniforms on, the usual light blue top and black pants that all police officers wore in the town of Scarletview. The other two bodies wore normal street clothes, one in a once yellow sundress and the other in a fast food resturant uniform.

Tatiana placed a hand over her mouth to stop her from vomitting. She wanted to close the door and, really, hide under the front desk. And cry a couple times.

The smell of blood was almost unbearable.

"Why aren't they comming after us?" Tatiana asked shakily, barely able to push herself into the room. She had expected them to jump up and attack them, but they were motionless, not a moan escaping any of them. It was possible to kill these things?

"Look," Alex said, pointing at one of the police officer's forehead. Tatiana could barely bring herself to gaze upon the bloodied, brainy forehead of the man. She noticed a small, burnt, black hole in the middle of his forehead. "Someone shot them."

Tatiana gazed around. The one in the sundress didn't even have a head left, more of a brainy, grey and pink stump of a neck. The others had half of their head missing with the gooey grey brain visable or else a simple burnt hole in their middle of their eyes or forehead. She also noticed that all of the cabinet drawers were laying open and many files were scattered about the room.

"Someone was here. They must have been in a hurry by the looks of it," Tatiana thought out loud as they made their way to the back door of the room. The office smelled like burning plastic, blood, and what she expected to be death. It was something she knew she would never forget, as hard as she would try. _But who says I'm going to even live to re-tell this story? _She thought hopelessly. She couldn't shake these depressed, desperate feelings away from her, as much as she tried.

"You okay?" Alex asked her. She glanced at him before returning her gaze to the next door in front of them.

"I don't know. I'm sad. I want to live. I want to be strong, even thou every part of me says to stay where I am and wait for help and cry. But...I don't want to die. I just...want to find out what's going on."

"I do too," He told her, opening the door. The next room Tatiana remembered. The break room. She had lunch here one day with her dad. That day seemed so long ago comapred to this day.

She spotted something moving on the small blue couch in the room. She pushed Alex back in the door frame and pointed to her. "One of them?"

"Can't be sure from here..." He whispered to her. From the looks of it, this room was untouched by the zombies. No blood stains, no messed up files or anything. There was broken glass underneath some of the candy and soda vending machines, but that was it. Was that person alive and not one of those things? Tatiana walked more into the room and carefully tip-toed to the couch, she was inwardly amazed at her courage. Alex followed at her side as they stood in front of the couch.

"I think...," Alex whispered to her, "If it was going to attack us, it would have done so by now."

Tatiana nodded and looked over the person who was apparently sleeping on the couch. She was a woman who was maybe 20 or 23. She had long chocolate brown hair that was slightly wavy and slightly tan skin. She wore a black suit, almost as if she were a lawyer or buisness woman, and in her hand...she held a gun. Her hands had flecks of blood on them from holding the gun, which had blood caked on it. Just as she was going to say something to Alex, the woman's eyes flashed open, revealing emerald green eyes.

The gun was raised, pointed at them, and the woman slowly stood up. Tatiana held back a scream and said, "Please! We're not one of those things!"

"Are any of you bitten?" She said, her voice deadly and sharp as a razor blade.

"No!" She cried.

The woman looked them both over with her crazed eyes and she ever so slowly lowered the gun to her side. She relaxed slightly and said, "Okay. I'm sorry about that. You just can't be too sure anymore."

The woman sat back down on the couch and let the gun lay by her leg on the couch. "What do you mean by that?" Tatiana asked, grabbing a chair by a small card table in the room. The woman opened her closed eyes and glanced at her. She looked very tired.

"When you are bitten," She began, and Tatiana swore she even sounded a bit crazy, "You turn into one of those things."

"Fucking zombies," Alex said, shaking his head. Tatiana stared at him and then back at the woman. She still didn't want to believe what Alex was calling them nor what this woman was telling them. But it all added up. She shook her head and closed her eyes, but all she could think of was her father. Just getting home from a dinner party for winning a fairly large case, dressed in a nice black suit. She thought of him stumbling about their now empty house, hungry. For flesh. She also thought of the old black and white zombie movies she watched with her cousin Dwanye. Was Dwanye even alive anymore?

"Oh," The woman said, clapping her hands to her knees, "How rude of me. I'm Antoinette Butula. Nice to meet you."

"My name is Tatiana St. Clair," Tati replied glumly. She just slowly stared at the off-white tiles as Antoinette asked, "St. Clair? As in the district attourney St. Clair?"

"Yes," Tatiana replied slowly. She would rather not have to talk about her father.

"I was suppose to interview him the day I came in here. But thats when I first saw one of those...heh, zombies," Antoinette said, pulling a pack of ciggerettes from her breast pocket. She pulled a small, red lighter from the breat pocket and pulled a thin, white ciggerette out of the pack and brought it to her lips. She lit it up and said, "That was when we just thought they were some insane cannibals, of course. But then after two of the cops got bitten by them, they changed. And then so many people just flocked here looking for help."

Tatiana lifted up her head to watch the woman speak. She seemed so...just, uneffected by what was happening. She was staring up at the ceiling, slowly blowing blue smoke from between her lips and taking drags on the ciggerette.

"But then too many of those zombies were getting in here and so many people were comming in with bites and chaning into them. Well, it was inevitable that almost all of the cops got bitten. I had to take a gun off one of them to take some of them down. But thats when I locked myself in here. But they were all dead by then-that was...maybe half a day ago. It seems like its been forever," She said slowly, as if she was mulling it all over in her head.

"I'm sorry," Tatiana asked. She looked sincerely at the woman as she put out the ciggerette in the ashtray on the card table.

"Don't be. I think I'm a bit lucky. How did you learn of this...epidemic, eh?" Antoinette asked, waving her hand at her.

"I woke up when I heard my dad come in...from a work party. And a crash. Then I saw him get attacked by one of those things-" Tatiana explained softly, choosing her words carefully. It wasn't the entire story, but she could feel her eyes slowly filling with tears. She didn't want to have her heart on her sleeve, she wanted to be strong now. She carefully wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her sweatshirt and ignored the intent, almost caring stare from Alex.

"I was here for hours and I watched them change. I know now that if you get bitten, your dead. You didn't. And how to kill them. A bullet to the head-or something like it, like smashing the head with a board or something," Anoinette said.

"You don't sugar coat things, do you?" Alex asked slowly. Tatiana glanced at him and he had a thoughtful look upon his face. She thought he would be mad. He had to watch his sister get attacked by the zombies and then change. And he had almost died at her hands. This woman was talking about this entire mess as if it were something she watched on TV the night before.

"I'm a journalist. I guess I've just learned that people want to hear the truth, not some fairy tale. And you are?" Antoinette said, her voice turning slightly softer now.

"My name is Alex Korolev," He replied. Antoinette simply nodded at him, studying his features.

There was a moment of awkward silence before, once again, Antoinette slapped her hands against her knees and stood up. She wore a black skirt that was just above her knees and a matching suit coat along with a white undershirt. She wore black high heels and Tatiana thought they made her seem almost more intimidating than she already was. "Are you guys hungry? I busted open the vending machines. You should keep your strength up, you know."

Antoinette crossed over to the vending machines and pulled out a few bags of chips and candy bars and tossed them over to Tatiana and Alex. "Its not the best of food to be eating, but it seems its all we have. That and soda and energy drinks. And theres a coffee machine too."

Tatiana, with a bag of pretzils and a chocolate candy bar in her lap, glanced around at the coffee break room for the first time. It seemed she had only been concentrating Antoinette's words and the tile flooring for the entire time. It was a quiet little room with the off-white tiles for flooring and tan painted walls. There were 2 couches in the room and two card tables, each with 4 chairs sitting at them. There was a small bar with a coffee machine on it and some cabinents. On the walls there were pictures of the police force and some of the old police deparment. It gave Tati a forced comfortable feeling.

She slowly began to open up the bag of pretzils when Alex began to talk.

"Did you manage to look around anywhere else in the building?" He asked Antoinette. Antoinette looked up from putting coffee groun;;ds in a filer and she shook her head.

"Noooo," She said, smiling, "I was a tad bit too scared, even with that gun over there. I just sat here and...pondered."

"I think," Alex began, "After resting, we should look around the building. Just to check things out."

Tatiana didn't add anymore to the conversation. She pulled a small, fragrent pretzil from the small bag and placed it in her mouth. She hadn't given thought to how her body was feeling, but she felt fatiaqued and terribly hungry. _A good rest sounds good...And very much needed_ she thought, as she began to chew.

**_Author's Note: Eeeek! First reviews always scare me. But of course, you need them to tell you what you're doing wrong (to be...harsh. tee hee.)_**

**_Sorry my characters do seem a little heartless...;;. I never was good at writing characters to be upset by this, even thou they really should be. I have gone over my work and edited it._**

**_So I hope you enjoy the chapters to come._**


	3. Heaven and Inbetween

**Heaven and Inbetween**

The summer night was slightly cool, but you could still feel the scorching hot day's aftermath. The moon was slowly taking the sun's place in the sky and even from all the bright, neon lights of the carnival rides, you could still see a few tiny, sparkling stars. As the wind swept through her hair, Tatiana glanced over at her father who sat besides her in the Ferris wheel cart.

"Are you having fun, Dad?" She asked, her voice filled with happiness and hints of laughter.

"A lot of fun, sweetheart. I don't need to ask, I know you're enjoying yourself very much," Her father replied, smiling brightly at her. It was strange to see her dad out of his usual business suits. He wore a pair of almost untouched jeans and a plain black t-shirt-the outfit made him seem so young, but he was in fact 43.

Their cart reached the top of the Ferris wheel and it gave them the most perfect bird's eye few of the entire carnival. The surging crowds of people waiting in line for the fun, exciting rides and many people playing games and winning prizes. Her dad had won her a large teddy bear and she knew she would keep it as a memento of this night. It wasn't often that they could spend time with each other. As their cart came slowly down from the ride and the fair attendant opened the latch so they could get out, Tatiana cried, "What ride will we go on next?"

* * *

Tatiana opened her eyes and she could feel fresh, hot tears in them. She was crying because she had dreamt of her father. She quickly wiped them away using the sleeve of her sweatshirt as a handkerchief. She had remembered eating the pretzels and candy bar that Antoinette had given her and she had laid down on one of the green couches in the room. She was surprised that she could actually sleep, but she remembered that she had been so tired and exhausted-physically and emotionally.

Tatiana sat up from and groggily looked around the room. Alex was sleeping, sitting up in one of the more uncomfortable looking chairs, with his arms crossed over his chest. She looked sadly at the flecks of blood on his face. His sister's blood. Anotinette was sitting cross legged on the other green couch, sipping at a cup of coffee and reading an issue of Cosmopolitan.

"Where did you get that?" Tatiana asked quietly, standing up from the couch. She slowly began to stretch out her arms.

"From one of the secretary's desk," Antoinette quietly replied. She took another sip of her coffee and said, "You've been sleeping for quite a while. That's good."

"I'm shocked that I can sleep with all this going on. I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares or something," Tatiana replied, going over to the vending machine. She reached her hand into one of the soda machines and carefully pulled a can of soda out for herself. She wasn't the type to drink coffee, even thou she seen that the coffee pot was steaming with freshly made coffee.

"You're right," Antoinette told her, "It was hard to try and sleep here. It was horrible to be alone and of course, with those dead things sitting right outside this door, it made it ten times worse. And there's the prospect of those things somehow breaking in here. Oh the possibilities!"

"You're a bundle of energy, I see," Tatiana said, laughing. laughter seemed like a treat, in her mind. It seemed so out of place to hear her own sweet, girlish laughter to ring out in the mostly empty room.

"You got it," Antoinette said, smiling at her while taking a generous sip of deep brown coffee from her light blue mug.

Tatiana opened up the can of soda she had and took a sip. She set the can down on the card table and asked, "Where is the bathroom?"

"Just outside that door by the coffee bar. Don't worry, there's none of those things out there, I checked," Antoinette said, suddenly solemn. She turned back to her Cosmopolitan and Tatiana walked out of the metal door in which she described.

Tati was met by a cold, empty hallway. The laughter and somewhat comfortable air from the break room had disappeared from her system. She felt scared and jumpy now, even thou Antoinette said there were none of those zombies around here. The hallway was lonely and had the same off white tiles on the ground with many scruff marks and the walls were painted blandly white. There were five doors, Three she wasn't sure about but the two were quite recognizable. A door that said "Women's" on a small plate and another door that said "Men's" on its small plate.

Tatiana opened the door to the bathroom and she was shaken at how empty her footsteps sounded. So lonely. The bathroom was extra cold and the lighting in the room was strangely blue-ish green. The color scheme in the room was obviously pink. Pink tiles, pink wallpaper, even pink flowers near the mirrors. Tatiana wasn't sure there was even many women on the Scarletview force. She did her business in the bathroom-still being very jumpy.

As she washed her hands in the hot water coming from the tap, she glanced up at her reflection in the mirror. She looked very pale and tired, even at the long nap she took.

Tatiana believed she was good looking. She had golden-honey brown hair that went down to her breasts and had pleasant blue-ish-gray eyes. Her hair was slightly tousled in a ponytail. She had haphazardly thrown on a pair of light wash jeans, a teal-colored sweatshirt, and she had on the black tank top she had worn with her pajamas. Morning seemed so long ago.

As she slowly thought about it, tears slowly came to her eyes. "Crying again?" She said to herself, her voice cracking. She let the tears simply fall from her eyes, the emotions of the day were finally catching up to her.

She let herself fall to the cold pink tiles and let herself burst into sobs, the sobs echoing through-out the bathroom. She rocked back and forth on her heels, her hands covering her face, harsh tears spilling through the cracks inbetween her fingers.

This was just a bad dream and she was going to wake up from it any second now...

But with more tears falling from her eyes, more sobs shaking her entire body...she knew this was real. If this was truely a dream-no a nightmare, she would have woken up the moment her dad fell to the floor, bleeding to death.

The rough cotton material of her sweatshirt made her eyes and cheeks burn as she wiped away the tears from her face. She ignored the empty feeling inside, the still unshed tears in her eyes. Tatiana used the sink as support to pull herself onto her feet. She glanced at herself one more time in the mirror. Now she truely looked like a mess. She turned on the facuet, her hands shaking violently, and she splashed water on her face a couple of times before wiping her face dry with a paper towel.

Her eyes were puffy and red from the tears and sweatshirt sleeve and her cheeks were flushed.

She wanted badly to sit and hide in one of the stalls, to cry for hours to make up for lost time. But that's what she didn't have-time. She was wasting precious time by sitting here. When the time was right, she would mourn.

She walked out of the bathroom and ignored the heavy feeling in her chest. She thought about other things.

Did the government know what was going on? Or was Scarletview the only city suffering from this? So many questions hit her as she stepped back into the coffee break room. Alex was now awake, drinking a cup of coffee as Antoinette was. Tatiana wanted to laugh at how normal this seemed, even thou all hell was probably breaking loose outside.

"We're going to search the rest of the rooms," Antoinette told Tatiana as she sat down on the couch. Her face went from completely seriousness to concern the minute she stepped into the room. The woman's green eyes looked over her slowly.

"Are you okay?" She slowly asked, as if she didn't want to step on any toes. Tatiana smiled slightly and just nodded.

"We aren't staying here too long are we?" She asked nervously. She grabbed the soda from the card table and sipped it. What she really didn't want was for all the attention to go from their plans to her.

"No," Alex said, "We need weapons."

"Right. Like zombie movies," Tatiana said, nodding. She noticed the soda can in her hands were shaking. She didn't realize that she was still lightly trembling. She was terrified inside, but she just tried to ignore the sickening, dreadful feeling.

"...I saw some of those cops in there," Antoinette said, motioning towards the side office door, "Some of them still have their guns on them."

Alex looked down at his tennis shoes as she said that, a dark look of thought on his face. Tatiana sighed heavily. Touching a dead body? No, touching a dead body that had been a zombie. It wasn't something she'd ever dream of doing. But now, she knew she had to if she was going to stay alive. Part of her was screaming don't do it, its inhumane, but the other half...It was her father telling her to survive and to not let the past hold her back...from her new "life." Who knew if she was going to live through this, anyways.

Tatiana stood up slowly, looking at Antoinette and then Alex, and said, "I'm going to search them." Her voice was strong, but a tad bit shaky.

She opened the side office door and the smell of blood and death hit her. She fought gagging and slowly walked past the two bodies slumped in the corner and she headed towards the police officer draped over the desk. Everything was damp with his blood, she noticed. She carefully stepped up to the desk, which meant stepping in the dark puddle of the sticky, crimson blood. She knew this would have been the perfect time to sneak a few tears, but...the feeling had just left her.

She noticed Alex had entered the room and had knelt down next to the cop face down on the floor.

The police officer in front of her had one of his eye's hanging out of the socket and the other was sunken in his head. He had a large chunk of his throat missing and what was left os his arm was just a stringy, dry, bloody stump. Tatiana noticed the gun on his belt still in its holster and she carefully placed a hand on the belt and the other she used to pull it out.

Surprisingly, the handgun was light, which was good. She knew about the safety lock on guns, so she checked the gun over and saw the switch was on. She didn't want to randomly shoot someone who wasn't a zombie. She didn't want to accidently shoot herself or anything either. Tatiana also spotted on the belt a small silver clip for the gun. She pulled it out of it's pouch and she put it in her sweatshirt pocket. She let the hand she held the gun in fall to her side and she walked up to Alex.

"Anything?" She asked softly.

"Yeah," He said. She spotted the same type of handgun in his hand. He stood up and gazed at her for a second and he said to her, "I'd never thought I'd ever have to use one."

Tatiana shook her head and said, "Neither did I. None the less hold one of these things."

Antoinette poked her head out of the break room and called out to them, "Are you guys okay?"

"Just fine," Alex called to her. He began to walk to the other side of the room to Antoinette and he turned to Tatiana and said, "You coming?"

She nodded to him and followed.

Antoinette had put down the Cosmo she was reading and had somehow found a map of the police station. The three of them sat down on one of the green leather couches and spread the map over the card table. "Well, for now on this floor, I say we check the jail cells. It could be possible that someone could be hiding in there," Antoinette started.

"Good idea," Alex told her. Tatiana spotted the D.A's office on the map, on the right side of the jail cells.

"And the police chief's office. I heard one of the deputies said that he locked himself in there or something...We could help him out maybe," Anotinette said.

"And if he's bitten?" Alex questioned. Antoinette simply nodded towards her gun, which laid next to the map on the card table. Alex sighed and nodded to her.

"But this is where we really need to go," Tatiana said, after studying the map. The second floor of the police station held the artillery room. That's what they needed the most, more weapons and some more ammuntion.

"And the dispatch room. We could radio out to the police officers. See if anyone is still alive," Alex said quietly.

Tatiana looked up at the two people who sat by her and she sighed. She felt like they were in control and she was simply dragging along. She wanted to make herself useful in any way possible. She felt too...emotional. She tried to mentally push all of her thoughts to the back of her mind and concentrate of the task at hand. Check the cells, see if police chief Gray was alive, get some supplies, and check the dispatch room.

Antoinette stood up and said, "We should get going." She stood up and picked up her gun from the card table and switched off the safety and kept it in hand as Tatiana and Alex followed suit. As they filed out of the break room, Tatiana couldn't help but re-scan the already cleared hallway. She felt as thou anything right now could pop out of the shadows and get her. She felt vulnerable, even with the handgun clutched tightly in her fist.

With the map in hand Antoinette pointed towards the jail cell door, which slightly stood out from the other doors because it seemed made out of metal and more reinforced. _Probably to keep prisoners from escaping _Tatiana thought as Antoinette tried to open the door. But it was locked.

"Shit," Antoinette said. She kept trying to pull the door open like if she kept trying long enough, the doors would magically open.

"Now what?" Alex said, glancing at Antoinette and then to Tatiana.

"I remember seeing a ring of keys in the side office..." Tatiana mumbled, nervously scratching her head. Now that the other two knew, they of course were going to make her go get them.

"You should have grabbed them before," Antoinette scolded lightly.

"I know, I'm sorry," Tatiana said, sounding very much like a two year old. She turned around and said, "I'll get them. Don't go anywhere without me, okay?"

Tatiana quickly ran to the break room door and went through the comfortable room before going into the side office. It still gave her chills to even think about this room and being in there alone was horrifying. The dead bodies seemed like there were just staring at her even, even thou they had bullets through their heads. She quickly grabbed the key ring from a hook near the door and ran back to Alex and Antoinette, who were both leaning against the jail cell wall.

"Let's hope there are some survivors in there or something," She said and she looked at the matching silver keys. She held up the key ring so Antoinette and Alex could see each matching key. It would take forever to test each little key on the lock. They didn't have that much time.

"Forget the keys...lets see if this works!" Antoinette said, aiming her handgun at the lock on the door. Tatiana's eyes widened as she pulled the trigger. Her ears were ringing and the door did seem a little shaken and when Antoinette pulled the door handle, the door did open, reluctantly.

"You're not quick to react, are you?" Alex said, humor in his voice as they entered into the ice cold cell block. Tatiana followed behind Alex and she could swear she smelled blood, along with the lonely smell of metal. It made her stomach churn ever so slowly, the feeling of vomitting over taking her. Their footsteps clapped against the stone of the ground as Tatiana realized how cold and different this room was from any of the other rooms. This room was so cold, it gave her a feeling of anger and desperation. A want of freedom. Or maybe she was just imagining it.

A hungry, brash moan sounded out from the back of the row of cells and they all jumped simultaneously.

"No survivors here..." Tatiana whispered as they walked down the row, close to the wall for the zombies in the cells had their arms sticking out between the cell bars. As they made it to the end of the row, she was only filled with a feeling of dread. Antoinette didn't seem to faze the zombies. She seemed to be very used to them by now, her eyes merely scanning over them. She was strong. She knew what she had to do to survive. Alex had a dark look over his face, and an almost saddened look. He looked like he was going to cry. Tatiana guessed he was thinking of his sister.

"The cops must have just locked up the bitten ones and tried to save the others," Alex said, his voice dark as well.

"I wish I would have known that before hand, we wouldn't have wasted out time here. I guess they didn't want to tell us that there were zombies right in the next room while they were trying to settle us all down," Anotinette said, "But most of the bitten just lied about it...tried to hide it. And they bit the police officers and civilians. Left me alone."

"That sound-" Tatiana tried to say.

And then she felt cold, gritty, wet, boney fingers touch the back of her neck and felt a hand on her shoulder. And then she felt immense strength pulling her towards the bars of the jail cell, every hair on her body standing up and her brain was blank. She was stiff, she didn't know what to do but scream. She felt the cold, dead breath of the zombie against her skin and she shrieked and pulled away from the creatures grasp as best as she could. She got out of bite's reach and Alex grabbed onto her wrist and pulled her into his arms, his pull so strong that it ripped the zombie's decayed hand off.

The zombie behind them moaned out in hungry frustration and it seemed angry at losing it's hand, if zombies could even feel emotions. Tatiana didn't care. She wanted to cry, ball her eyes out on the fellow survivor's shoulder. She couldn't feel anything at that moment but shock, horror, and anger. She rested her head on Alex's shoulder, and she didn't even flinch when she heard the loud, but short, clap of Antoinette's handgun. She heard the thump against the cold stone of the floor and she turned to the zombie, laying in a growing pool of its own blood. She looked at the bloody hand laying right next to her shoe.

Tatiana couldn't hold it back. She let the cold tears drip down her cheeks and drop down onto Alex's t-shirt. She could have easily have gotten a piece of her neck taken out of her...and then she would have turned into one of them. She held back the sob she wanted to let go, she didn't want to seem so weak in front of Alex and Antoinette. Alex slowly brought his arms around her and he held her there and she continued to cry, without making a sound. She felt a comforting, gentle hand touch her back. She knew it was Antoinette.

She didn't want that to be her-the living dead, hungry for human flesh and blood, walking the earth forever in search of food.

She looked up to Alex and slightly smiled as she pulled her arm up and wiped away the tears from her face. "I'm okay."

"Come on...These things are giving me the fucking creeps," Antoinette said, breaking the horrifying silence. She even sounded a little shaken. Maybe even from the little amount of time they had spent together, she had grown close to Tatiana. Or maybe she didn't want to have to kill another person. A little of both, perhaps.

Tatiana nodded to the older woman and, sticking close to the wall, followed Antoinette out of the jail cell. She didn't want to ever step in that room again. The cold touch of the zombie would always remain with her. Tatiana noticed that Alex still kept an arm around her, protectively.

"I'm too fragile. I have to learn how to be stronger," She whispered. Alex glanced sideways at her; "I don't have a choice."

"If we want to live, we have to put our fears and the past behind us...," He replied slowly, "But I think you can manage. You can always count on me to be there for you."

"Thanks. It means alot, you know," She said back to him. Antoinette turned back to them and smiled.

"This may seem very cheesy," She began, "But don't forget about me. Because, I bet this shithole of a new life won't be just as fun and exciting without me."

Tatiana let out a bit of giggle at this. She was glad they were trying to rise her sprits and make her feel better, it was exactly what she needed. What shook her from her thoughts was the sound of something pounding against a door. The door to their left, the police chief's office. Tatiana held the gun in her right hand tighter.

"I guess Chief Grey is one of them," She said quietly. She was even shaking. Her father was good friends with Chief Gray, since they worked almost side by side. She grew up to know him as "Uncle George" and he was a frequent guest to dinner at their house along with his wife, Sandy, and his daughter, Ruby. It hurt to have to think of him as a zombie, but she shook off the thought. She thought of him as one of those things that could kill her. She couldn't possibly go on to survive if she still kept the emotional ties with the zombies who had once been her friends or family. They weren't their true selves anymore, just...shells. _Yes. Shells._

The pounding continued and the familiar sound of wood splintering came to her ears.

"We have to kill him. He could bust out of there while we're upstairs," Alex said, his eyes scanning the floor tiles before raising them to Antoinette. She nodded to him. He seemed sad to have to kill him, his voice strained with a type of sadness. A type of sadness she understood. The zombies were once people who had families and loved ones, and Alex had to see a loved one turn into one of those things.

"Someone open the door, I'll shoot him," Tatiana said, her voice barely strong. It surprised her to be like that, but the new frame of mind, she could tell, was settling in, but was putting up a fight.

"Whoa," Anotinette said, smirking a bit. "Guess you grew up a bit since just a few minutes ago."

"I suppose so." Tatiana said quietly, raising the gun slightly to her chest.

"Okay then. Alex, you open the door," Antoinette said, taking her place next to Tatiana.

"Why me?"

"Because I'm a better shot and she could miss," Antoinette said. Alex shrugged, but didn't let go of his gun any less.

"Secretly, I'm very afraid of those damn zombies. I'd rather not get more close than I have to get with 'em," Antoinette whispered to Tatiana as Alex walked to the door.

"Are you sure? Are you okay?" Antoinette then said, softly and almost motherly like. Tatiana looked at her and nodded.

He placed his hand on the door knob and Tatiana could see his hand shaking from the force of Chief Grey's fists against the door. Even wood splinters were slowly flying at him. "Take aim, because once I get this door open, I'm ducking."

"Got it," Tatiana said. He was depending on them getting the zombie. He had his trust in them, in her. She wouldn't let him down.

Alex opened the door slightly with his hand, moans escaping from inside the room. Then he kicked in the door and fell onto his back as Chief Irons revealed himself. Chief George Grey was a healthy, more fit man. He had had curly, greyish-orange hair and always bright, eager green eyes. He wasn't the typical tyrant like corrupted police chief you usually hear about, but a man who truly cared about the force he over look and the city which he protected. The built muscles he once had were bitten into, the stringy tissue and bloody muscle were visible from his bloodied, ripped white shirt. His eyes were glazed red and crazed. His mouth was wide and screaming for food and he was just going to lunge for Alex on the ground.

Tatiana kept her eyes wide open, something she had learned in the movies she watched. Never close your eyes. She aimed the gun right for the head of the screaming beast. The man who was just simply the shell of her Uncle George. She squeezed the trigger of her handgun before Antoinette had the chance to and she watched, as if it were in slow motion, the bullet sail from the gun and through the air and finally into the skull of the beast. Blood splatter everywhere and brain and bone was covering everything as well. Antoinette shot her gun as well, the bullet sailing right between the eyes of the man and the zombie fell on his heels, blood leaking on the floor and on Alex.

Alex looked on, disgusted, and kicked the still kneeling body away from him before he fell on him. He stood up and looked at his bloodied jeans and said, "You did it."

Tatiana seemed very happy for herself. It was a good first shot for someone who had never in her life held a gun. She brought the gun to her mouth and blew on the end of it, just like as if she were in an old western movie. There was no better time to be joking around than after crying and shooting someone she knew.

**_Author's Note: I admit, I haven't written anything in a while. Maybe I just feel like this is too un-real. Obviously, its not real, but my characters are just not believable. But it's okay, I'm going to keep going with this story._**

**_Holiday break ended and well, school came on hard and I just haven't found the time to write anything. I promise another update in the next week. Reviews are always appreciated. And I hoped you enjoyed this chapter...and I hope your not bored with this series so far. Tell me if there's anything I can change._**


	4. In This World

**In This World**

Opening up the front door had to the be the most scary thing to do, in his opinion. He half expected a swarm of those things to jump in and eat him alive, but there was nothing. With the hunting rifle in his hand the keys to Maria's large, blue SUV in the other, Llyeton jogged out to the truck and opened up the driver's side door. He sat in the driver's seat, letting the hunting rifle lay in his lap as he put the key in the ignition. Still, he couldn't take his eyes off his surroundings.

It was eerily quiet and even a soft, but slightly cold wind blew. The sun was just rising, relieving them of a horrible night. The worst night of his life, he'd come to realize.

His name was Lleyton Nichols, he was an active, fit 22 year old. He had slightly curly dark blonde hair and bright green eyes. He wore a pair of tan shorts, a dark red t-shirt(which hid the blood soaked into it), and a pair of tennis shoes.

Lleyton was shocked that not at least a few of those things were hanging around. There were a couple ones out here that Maria had shot, but they were motionless. They still gave him the creeps, none the less, but they weren't after his flesh and blood anymore.

Maria and Nastasha jogged out of the house, both of them struggling with cardboard boxes in hand. The boxes were filled with supplies. Bottled water, canned food, blankets, and ammunition for the few weapons that Maria's ex-husband had left around her house. Maria propped one of the boxes on her hip to pop open the trunk of the SUV. She was nervously looking around as well.

Maria Bennet was a tough as nails 35-year old woman he had met when he had ran out of his parent's house. When he had heard the news on TV, he had rushed over to his parents house to get them to safety...but when he had gotten there, the door was busted down and his parents were coming out at him. Crazed and hungry. He wouldn't forget their faces. Maria had pulled up besides him on the road and had shot his parents down with a shotgun. She had screamed for him to get into the car if he wanted to live. And he did so.

When he had gotten into the car and Maria had drove off, he had started to cry. He watched the...zombies...chasing afer the SUV. He was thinking 'What was the world comming to? What was happening?' The girl sitting next to him in the backseat was crying, sobs filling the entire vechicle.

Maria was a fit woman, the type of person you seen jogging along the road at 5 in the morning. She was an active member of the Scarletview Softball Club and the Fitness center. She had black hair that was tied into a braid that went down to her middle back and she had the sharpest brown eyes he'd even seen-he had sworn they were black when he first seen her, wielding the shotgun and screaming at him. She was still in her jogging outfit- a pair of black capris, a white tank top, a black sweatshirt, and running shoes.

Maria looked to him and said, "Don't be zoning out on me kid." She had a hint of humor in her voice, so he smiled back at her.

Natasha looked from Maria back to Lleyton and she lightly smiled. Natasha, she was young. Barely 17, and pretty. Her pretty features had been in a look of freight ever since he had met her, she smiled a bit, but her eyes always revealed out scared she was. Natasha Griffen was an honor roll student and cheerleader at the local high school. Typical good student and good daughter. She had told them that she was driving home from school when he parents had called to tell her to get home as fast as she could, that something strange was going on. When a truck slammed into the passenger side of her car. She had made it out her car fine and without a scratch, but she seen the truck driver being attacked by one of things in its truck-hence the driver going out of control on the road.

She had ran when Maria had picked her up. Maria had short, curly light blonde hair and honey brown eyes that seemed like they were welled up with tears that she just wouldn't shed in front of them. She wore a pair of jean shorts, a pink long sleeved top, and shoes which she had gotten from Maria.

"You holding up okay, Natasha?" Lleyton asked. He seemed almost afraid that she'd go crazy if they didn't stop checking on her and talking to her. She just seemed like the type...

"Yeah," She replied quietly. She hadn't said much to him. She only seemed to really talk to Maria. Her savior. His savior. He could really admire what the strong woman had done for them, he wasn't too sure he would have done what she had done. They were just strangers that she had picked up off the street and she saved their lives, fed them, gave them a place to stay, and she was helping them out of the city to safety.

"Natasha, there's just two more boxes on the kitchen table. Grab them please," Maria asked tiredly as she leaned up against the side of the SUV. Natasha nodded and jogged back into the house. Lleyton could almost laugh at the hunting rifle slung across her back with a makeshift strap made out of a couple ties. She was smart and resourceful, that was for sure.

"What's up?" Maria asked him, her voice sounding thoughtful.

Lleyton looked up to her face and said, "Nothing. Just thinking...why do you think none of those things are around here?"

"I don't know," Maria sighed, "Maybe they knew they couldn't get to us and went into the city to try and find food. Beats me."

Natasha came out of the house with the remaining two cardboard boxes. She had a knife tucked into one of the belt loops of her shorts. Maria only had three guns and she had managed to find the knife to keep her from feeling vulnerable. It seemed so out of place on her, but he could have never pictured her with a gun anyways. She had told him she would have never been able to use one anyways. She settled the two boxes into the back of the trunk of the SUV when one of the boxes containing some canned food, bread, and water had spilt onto the driveway. She knelt down to pick them up just as they heard a window bust open.

Lleyton jumped up out of the driver's seat, startled by the sound that broke the morning silence. A female zombie was running at them, her mouth wide open, screaming, blood streaming from somewhere on their body. Just as she was going to lunge at Natasha(the girl was frozen were she was, clutching a can of sliced peaches and a water bottle) when a shot rang out and the woman fell to the ground, twitching wildly.

Brandon Darcy came out of the house, his shotgun in hand, as he closed the front door. Maria glanced at him, eyes wide with surprise, before she raised her gun and finished off the zombie in one good shot to the head, the woman's brain and blood shooting at them.

Natasha, not saying a word, continued to pick up the now blood sprayed cans and bottles of water and she placed them back into the box they were in. She placed it in the trunk and closed the back of the SUV. She turned to Brandon and shakily said her thank yous. Brandon walked up to her, slinging the shotgun over his shoulder with his tie-shoulder strap, and put a hand on Natasha's shoulder.

"Are you okay?" He asked, his voice firm and strong, hinted with concern and even fear. He was more a father-y type to them, even thou he was just barely 30. He had thick black hair and smart brown eyes and had a fairly muscular build. He wore a dressy pants, the type you wore with a suit. He had the coat tied around his waist and his tie was forgotten somewhere, with just a longsleeved white undershirt. Considering his attire, he didn't seem like the one who would ever think of shooting a gun. But suprisingly, he was a member of the Scarletview Gun Club. He was a perfect shot and an asset to their little "clique"

"Yes, Yes," She said, her voice shaky. She sighed heavily, and Lleyton knew she was trying not to cry in front of them. Brandon nodded to her and Natasha walked to the driver's side and opened up the back seat door and settled in. She was nervously looking around, as if one of those things were just going to magically appear and kill her.

"She'll be fine," Maria said, getting into the passenger seat of the SUV and Brandon got into the backseat next to Natasha.

The Emergency Broadcast System was blaring over the radio and Brandon reached out and clicked the radio off. It was better to be in hushed silence than have to listen to a repeated message that didn't help at all.

"Highway?" Lleyton asked Maria.

"Yep."

"We're going to be out of here. Maybe even safe," Natasha whispered to them like she expected them to not listen.

"Yeah," Maria said softly, not taking her eyes off the other, mostly abandoned houses in her cuddle sac as Lleyton pulled out of the driveway and onto the road.

* * *

**_Author's Note: Wow, this chapter is short. Sorry, guys. I have my spirit back to writing this story, thanks to Logan21_**

**_Watching some Dead Rising videos just lit the fire inside of me and now i'm comming up with new ideas and I'm very excited to continue writing. So thaaaaank you! And I hope everyone who is reading this is excited for more chapters! Hehe..._**


	5. The Choice To Move On

**The Choice To Move On**

Police Cheif Grey's office was hopeless to look through. There had been nothing in there to help in their search or to help them figure out what was going on. Grey must have got bitten and he had locked himself in his office. They decided to move on.

The artillary room smelled like strong metal and something Tatiana guessed was gun powder. The room was slightly cold, with lockers running up and down the walls, lockers for the deputies, and shelves with boxes of ammuntion and and racks of guns above them. The sight of all the guns made the hairs on Tatiana's neck stand up. She half expected one to just randomly fire off, but that didn't happen. Most of the racks that held guns were empty. And there were few boxes of ammo left.

The police had loaded up before they left, but it seemed it hadn't helped at all. They didn't know how to fight the zombies.

Antoinette left her handgun on a bench in the room and she walked up to the racks of rifles and pulled one down from the wall. She hefted it up and said, "This will be more effective than that weak ass handgun."

Alex pulled a similar rifle from the wall and said, "True."

"I don't know If I can use that thing!" Tatiana said, suprised. She set her handgun down next to Antoinette's and pulled a rifle from the wall. They were heavy, the handgun was so much lighter. She placed her finger on the trigger and held it up and eyes view, miming shooting.

"Barbarella," Anotinette giggled to her. Tatiana shook her head, blushing slightly. She setttled the rifle back onto the wall and said, "I think I'll stick with the handgun."

"Suit yourself," Antoinette said, strapping the rifle on her shoulder using the shoulder strap. She pulled a black duffel bag from the wall and said, "Lets start packing these things with supplies. We do not want to be stuck out in the middle of no where with any extra ammo."

She tossed a bag to Tatiana and they started throwing the reamining small packs of ammunition into the bags.

"And if we find survivors?" Tatiana asked, glancing at the two before putting her eyes back onto the boxes of ammo.

"Then I'm sure we can take some extra guns with us?" Said Alex, strapping two rifiles onto his back.

"Good thinking," Antoinette said, going over to a rack that held handguns. She pulled out a couple and started carefully placing them inside with the ammo she had. There was many of the handguns still available, but Alex and Antoinette had the last remaining rifiles.

"I guess the force wanted heavy fire power," Tatiana observed softly to them, as she zippered up the bag she had. The bag was barely half full with the colorful little boxes.

"Good thing we're in a damn police station," Antoinette added added. Her duffel bag was full of the tiny, colorful boxes of ammo as well and she had placed handguns in some of the side pockets of the bag. When Tatiana had her bag secured, she hefted it up onto her back. It was heavy, with all the metal clunking together, but the guns and extra ammo with crutial to survival. She glanced to see Antoinette, duffel bag across her back along with a rifle slung across her shoulder and a rifle in hand. It looked so out of place with her suit, which was quite rumpled from sleep. With the guns, Alex seemed a natural.

He sighed, glancing at her and then back to the door of the room and said, "Last room."

"Now or never," Tatiana said, sounding almost questionable.

"Geez, guys," Antoinette said, waving her hand at them, "You all sound like you're going to a funeral."

"Who knows. We could be," Alex replied, sounding very depressed and thoughtful.

The group didn't say a word after that, letting uncomfrotable silence take over them as they exited the room, which seemed more empty than before, and headed down the more dark, unpersonal hallway. The only rooms on the top level of the police station were empty offices, the interogation room, dispatch room, and atrillary room. The walls were bland and white, almost off white, with few pictures and paintings on the walls, unlike downstairs were pictures of officers were beaming down on them. It was strange to seem them in the pictures, smiling as if nothing was wrong. But now...they were all dead, most likely.

Tatiana had come to be the leader of the group, handgun in her hand, slightly raised to her chest in case she had to shoot something if it decided to jump out at her. As they approached the dispatch room door, she swore she could hear a moan. When she placed her damp hand on the doorknob, she slowly opened the door with ease. And she was right to do so.

As the door creaked open, a pair of bloody-white eyes looked down at them and the zombie's mouth spread wide into a blood spraying scream. It began to run at them and Tatiana swore she heard Antoinette scream "Shit!" But she had simply raised the gun higher, up to eye level. And it seemed natural, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized her hands were shaking so bad she thought she was going to drop the gun. But she didn't. She squeezed the trigger and the zombie flew back just ever so slightly, its brain fully exposed and it fell to the ground.

There was a moment of silence among them before Antoinette said, "Jesus christ, I told you she was Barbarella."

Tatiana just shook her head at Antoinette and she could swear she could feel herself slightly smiling. It felt good to be able to protect herself, she didn't and wouldn't have to follow Alex and Antoinette around like a helpless drone. No more crying.

As they entered into the room, trying to ignore the blood gushing everywhere from the zombie, the radio in the dispatch room went crazy with white noise and a screaming voice:

"Hello!? Please! Is ther-Help! Please! Oh god! No! There can't be more of the-"

Tatiana and Antoinette looked at each other and then to the radio as they continued to hear the dying screams of the person, whoever it was, scream for help. They could hear hungry moans and screeches comming as well. That person, most likely a police officer stuck out in the middle of the city, just got ambushed by a pack of them. And he was dead.

The calls stopped comming in, after a short moment.

"We-should, um, call out," Tatiana said, the adreneline slowly leaving her body. She felt sick. There was nothing they really could have done for that police officer or whoever it was. But they could at least try to prevent more stories like that from happening.

Antoinette sat down in the large chair in front of the radio and grabbed the mouthpiece. "What should we say?"

"Ask if there's any survivors out there...tell where we are?" Alex suggested, leaning against the back of the chair.

Antoinette nodded to him and pressed down the button on the side of the mouthpiece.

"Hello? Anyone out there? Well, if there really is anyone listening out there...There are a group of surivivors at the Scarletview Police Station." She said slowly and clearly into the mouthpiece. Once she was done, she took her hand off of the button of the mouthpiece and she sighed.

"We can only wait now," She said.

"But for how long?" Alex said, his voice terribly serious. Scared even.

"We have to wait for a while, we have to," Tatiana urged, "We can't-

The sound of the radio acting up interupted them.

"Hello? Come in, Scarlet View. Come in?" A voice, thou crackily and a bit mumbly, called out in the room. It was a strong man's voice, but the voice seemed happy, ecstatic. Antoinette let out a sigh of relief and grabbed clicked the button on the mouthpiece.

"Hello? This is Scarlet View." She replied to the man's crackily voice. Hope. There was hope for them. Someone was alive out there and they weren't alone anymore.

"Scarlet View, this is Raven Heights. Well, whats left of Raven Heights. My name's Jeff and, well, are you okay?"

Antoinette had the smile glued to her face. "Yes, yes, Jeff. We're fine. My name is Antoinette. I have two other surivivors with me. We're just looking for a place to go right now."

Tatiana set the duffel bag she had on her back down at her feet and she leaned against the back of Antoinette's chair. Raven Heights was a smaller town that sat about 20 miles out of the city. It was more of a vacation town. Many hotels and tiny resorts, but not many people who actually lived there. It seemed almost like an ideal place to go. There wasn't alot of people who went there during the fall/winter seasons for the outdoor resorts were closed and most shops were closed.

"Well, you're in luck," Jeff said, "Me and a couple of survivors escaped to a hotel in the city and well, there's plenty of food and we've secured most of the exits."

"And the zombies?" Antoinette asked, her eyes glancing around the room almost suspiciously as she talked into the mouth piece. The man, Jeff, seemed a little taken back at first at the creatures being called zombies, but maybe he knew that it was what they really were.

"Well, there are a few outside...," He began, "Maybe ten at least. I don't think they know we're here, which is a good thing. We do have someone with a gun here and we're going to try and take them out from a window. But we don't have much ammuntion."

"Not a problem. We have extra supplies with us and well...just give us the location and we're there," Antoinette said, a hint of happiness and hope lit up her voice.

Tatiana smiled and glanced to Alex, who seemed more amused that happy. He always seemed sarcastic somehow, but Tatiana liked that about him. A feeling of unity and hope filled the room, so strong it was almost tangiable. Tati knew that meeting up with these people was going to be a good idea. More people to help fight, food other than stale candy bars and chips, and a somewhat feeling of security perhaps.

It was what they needed.


	6. On The Road Again

**On The Road Again**

"Are...there any out there?" Tatiana whispered to Alex. There was no real reason to whisper, but when they walked up to leave the police station a feeling of absolute terror filled her.

"There's five. Fucking five. A woman near the fountain, a teenager by your car Tatiana, an old lady by the garden, a little boy who must have fallen in the fountain, and a big ass man pretty cloes to the door," He replied strongly, his gaze still glued to the view from the window on the door.

The group of three, after finding the location of the hotel (on Elm Street, the biggest building on the street with a group of zombies around it) had packed up some of the bland, stale break room snacks and had sort of...regrouped their situation. Tatiana was still scared. What if by time they got to the hotel, well...the zombies break in. And everyone there is dead. Then what? Where do they go? It was too much to think about. She kept trying to tell herself to just think about the current plan-the plan that might work and might not work. If it doesn't work, then they'll just keep...well, going on.

They kept themselves out of view of the big, body builder looking man near the door. Tatiana remembered from some late night zombie movies she used to watch that they go literally insane at the sight of fresh, walking, hot humans. It made her quiver even more. The man was a giant, at least 6'4 with muscles the size of a wrestlers. Bits of the stringy, strong looking muscle fibers were visable, bright and a pinkish-red color. Blood soaked his once white wife-beater. Almost half of his face was gone, contorted into a sick grin, the other half looking dazed and just plain...digusting.

Tatiana took her eyes from the big man and to Antoinette and Alex.

"What now?" She asked, her voice strong, despite how bad her body was shaking and the beads of sweat that dripped down her forehead.

"Bum rush them..." Antoinette whispered, sounding deep in throught, "It's our only choice."

Tatiana nodded ever so slowly, glancing back out at the other zombies roaming about. The little boy, who looked no more than 4 or 5, almost looked like it was swimming, but it wasn't. It was twitching violently, but why? What happened to it? The crystal clear water that used to spew from the fountain was now crimson with blood. Normally, Tatiana would have found that utterly disturbing...but now, it just seemed somewhat regular. The woman near the fountain seemed maybe 30, but fairly young. She wore a spotted with blood green shirt and a matching darker green skirt that was barely clinging to her body because it was almost torn to shreds. She was missing an arm and the other arm was filled with oozing gashes.

The old lady was hunched over, her purple-ish red dressed ripped in the back, her spine visable. Her eyes were white and frankly, horrifying. Blood was dripping from her mouth.

But the teenager by her car worried her the most. It was a teenage boy with no real injuries visable besides the huge gash in his head, exposing his gooey, grey colored brain. His face was absolutely covered in blood and so was his shirt and pants. He was slowly comming away from the car, but he was close enough to be a threat.

What would she do if Alex, Antoinette, or even herself got bitten?

She couldn't think about it.

"Time's up. No more waiting around..." Alex whispered back, his voice seemed scared but determined.

"Let's go," Tatiana said back, raising her gun slightly.

She didn't place her eyes on her "teammates" because she knew they were ready. She kept her eyes on the small window on the door. Antoinette placed her hand firmly on the door handle.

And opened it.

Right when the slight squeak of door rang out slightly in the courtyard of the police station, the big muscular man looked over, shocked, with his bright blackish-red eyes. He let out a pure shriek of hunger and anger-telling them he was going to eat them. He sprinted at them full force, his mouth wide open, screams still comming from him.

Tatiana ran as fast as she could, her entire body shaking, her legs feeling like jelly. She was suprised she was even able to run. Somewhere in the utter choas of what was happening, Antoinette raised her rifle and started shooting. The first blast of shots went wild. two hit him in the chest in a mist of blood, and the other one in the neck, not stopping him at all.

"Come on!" She screamed, and for the first time, she sounded scared. Tatiana raised her handgun at the same time Alex raised his rifle, but Antoinette wouldn't let it go. She shot two more times. One shot went through the area near the chin and the other on the right side of the forehead. The big man went down, falling on his face on the sidewalk, splattering the pavement with blood. The tiny red car of Tatiana's was maybe 15 yards ahead now.

The little boy struggled out of the fountain, but now it was visable that he was missing a leg and was unable to walk, but crawl. The old woman hobbled over as fast as she could and the woman and teenager were running at full speed. Tatiana tried to aim as best as she could, her aim always off from running and purely from shaking. She squeezed the trigger 3 times, one shot blasting the sprinting woman in the neck, another to her stomach, and one somehow went to her kneecap, which took her down. But she somehow got up, blood spurting from her knee. But Alex took her out with a blast of bullets from his rifle, her head exploding and spraying them with blood and brain matter.

The teenager was comming at full force and none of them could get a shot at them.

_We're going to die. We're going to die. All because we suck at shooting. I didn't want to die this way!_

A shot from Antoinette went through his shoulder but he was able to lunge and he barely missed falling on top of Alex. Tatiana dug the keys out of her sweatshirt pocket as the zombie recovered, faster than god knows what, and began to sprint at them again. She clicked the automatic unlock button on the controler on her key ring and relished in the click of the car doors unlocking. She couldn't hear anything besides ringing in her ears and the sound of her heart beating madly, but somehow she could hear it.

Tatiana turned around-the teenage zombie was shrieking in anger at her. She raised her gun and squeezed the trigger. Somehow, as if God directly aimed the bullet, it went through his head, straight between the eyes. A lucky shot that saved them.

She ran into the side of the car and took no time to spare, she grabbed onto the car door handle and opened the door. The old woman and little boy were no threat to them and they wouldn't waste the bullets. But the rush of adreneline and freight were running through their veins and they wanted to get into the somewhat safety of the car. Tatiana tossed her duffel bag into the back seat and sat in the driver's seat and slammed the door shut, Alex was in the passenger seat, and with the "luggage" Antoinette was in back.

Tatiana smashed the key into the ignition and started the car, her eyes glancing at the fuel guage. Almost a full tank of gas. She had forgotten her dad had given her money to fill up because she was supposed to be going to the mall with her friends the other day. A lucky call.

_Were her friends even alive?_

The hum of the engine soothed Tatiana and she started to drive, her knuckles white against the steering wheel. She had stopped shaking, but she could feel she would be soon. She just knew she would. She was drenched in sweat and was still perspiring, her hair was tangled and looked absolutely shabby and she was suprised she could even care at her looks at this moment. Alex looked triumphant and Antoinette had a scared, smirk on her face. They looked as sweaty and shabby as she did. It made her feel secure somehow.

Tatiana turned left on main street, noticing the empty sidewalks and shops, buildings, and offices. This was the busiest street in town and was never empty. The day was Friday. Main street was never empty on friday. Teenagers were going out to coffee or shopping after school and adults were jogging on the sidewalk and couples were admiring some of the sights of Scarletview-the typical scene. But there was no one. Only abandoned cars and a few staggering zombies. They slowly turned their heads at the sound of the car comming down the street but were fast to react.

Tatiana could see their mouths gaping open, screaming in hunger. She pressed her foot on the accelerator down and sped down the road with the zombies trying to keep up behind her.

"God, why the fuck can these things run? What happened to the slow, stupid ones?" Antoinette said, sounding exhausted. She was sitting on her knees, looking out the back window. Tatiana could still see the zombies chasing after them, even after turning down another street. But they were slowly falling behind and they fell out of view, but not out of Tati's thoughts.

"I don't know. Everything's fucked up," Alex said quietly. He was looking out of the car window, his arm leaning against the side of the door and his hand was holding his head up, lazily.

"Yeah," Tatiana replied simply. Everything was fucked up, obviously. She kept her eyes on the road, carfully avoiding cars and random objects that were in the middle of the road such as garbage cans and even things like purses and shoes. She slowly took a hand off the steering wheel and felt around to switch on the radio.

"This is not a test. Execute extreme measures to keep the infected away from yourself. Do not come into contact with them. Do not get bitten by them. Take shelter where ever you can away from the infected. There is no time to bury the dead. Kill them, by impacting their heads or brains with something. The recently deceased have come back to life and are attacking the living. Take all measures to keep yourself safe."

Chills ran up Tatiana's spine. The emergency broadcast system alerts always scared her. Whenever she left her tv on at night and heard one come on, she instantly woke up and was scared. They were eerie. They made her feel like something was always wrong, even if it was just a test.

"The disease center in Washingtion has yet to find a cure for the infected nor can find a cause to it. The CDS are unsure how this event is occuring-"

Alex reached his hand out and changed the station. Same thing. He changed it multiple times before somehow, they found music playing on the radio. It had been almost three days of the "outbreak." Were there really people alive out there who were playing music on the radio? _Maybe they wanted to survivors who were driving to have something to listen to besides the broadcast system. Maybe not._

_It's the end of the world as we know it.  
It's the end of the world as we know it.  
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine._

Tatiana drove up and onto the ramp leading to the highway and slowly sighed to herself. A bright green sign on the side of the road said "Raven Heights 18 miles, Southridge 30 miles, Saukville 60 miles"

18 miles to their future lives. 18 miles before they would find out what would become of them.

* * *

Author's Note: I really enjoy writing this story. I really love it and I love comming up with characters. The ideas are just swirling around in my head. But school is cramming me with homework, studying and what not, so my updates won't be as frequent, but they will be good! I promise!

And did I mention that I LOVED Captian Black's review:D I love reviews like those, but constructive criticism is always appreciated! (Send ideas if you want to. I'm always open to the readers ideas) I love all my reviews and just waking up this morrning, I think I had THREE. dies So thank you, I love the reviews. It makes it even more important that I write the story becuase people want me to.

Now, I'll stop rambling. Thank you for reading!!! Stay tuned for the next chapter.


	7. Mix In With The Lot

**Mix In With The Lot**

The highway was completely abandoned. Cars, trucks, vans, and SUVs were crowded near the sides of the road and even in the middle of the road, making driving very difficult. Tatiana kept the car at 20 miles per hour, to keep going through the maze of cars in the road and because she was in shock. Some cars had their doors wide open and they were abandoned. But some...their were zombies inside.

Clawing at the windows, blood splattering them but not hiding the image of the calamities inside. It made her insides churn. It scared her. It also made her scared at the thought of so many people turning into those things.

As soft rock music played through the speakers, the sound of glass shattering broke the awkward, scared silence.

"What the hell-" Alex began to say, but Antoinette cut him off.

"Drive! Now!" Antoinette screamed. Tatiana glanced up at the rearview mirror and wanted to somehow grow wings and fly away from what was chasing them. Four zombies were running at them, full speed, and dead hungry.

She put the pedal to the metal and kept driving, her car swirving around the road, avoiding cars as the zombies still kept up.

"What the hell? Was the entire fucking family bitten or what?" Tatiana spat angrily, hiding her freight. There were two adults-a woman and a man. A mom and dad. No visable bite marks thou. And then there were two girls, twins it appeared. One's brain was visable and the other was missing her hand and one of her eyes.

Tatiana barely missed slamming the right side of her car into a van as two more zombies caught up to the family, one a teenager and the other a young boy. She was scared shitless. She took the time to glance at how fast she was going-70 miles per hour.

_Great. Driving from a pack a zombies while avoiding these fucking cars. Just a fun way to get into an accident! _Tatiana thought bitterly.

They were catching up fast. There were too many cars abandoned in the middle of the road. "One of you...you have to shoot from out the window."

"What? And get hit by one of the cars or something?" Antoinette said, sounding sarcastic.

"Something!" Tatiana screamed, looking back at her, desperately. When she took her eyes back on the road, she screamed again, barely avoiding driving straight into a SUV. She swirved almost into the barriers on the highway but gained control of the car. She began to sweat again and her heart was slowling picking up speed again. The zombies were relentless. They were hungry. They wouldn't stop until they got what they wanted. A fresh hot meal.

"Okay, I'll do it," Alex said, sounding a little mad, but scared as well. He pulled his rifle from the backseat where he was set it and clicked off the safety. Having the gun ready to shoot in a tiny, closed area like the car slightly freaked Tatiana out, but she had to deal with it. Unclicking, his seat belt he rolled down the window and nervously looked back at the swarm of zombies chasing the little red car and then back at Tatiana and Antoinette.

"You can do it," Tatiana whispered to him. Hell, she'd do it herself if she wasn't driving.

He leaned himself out of the window and pulled himself out as carefully as he could, which was pretty hard at 65 miles per hour and more, sailing across the highway and dealing with the abandoned vehicles inbetween. He pulled him self out enough so he was almost sitting on the windowsil, Tatiana saw his knees shaking together as he placed his foot underneath the seat. It would help him from slipping easily from the car window.

The hoard of zombies behind them was growing. Zombies were slowly escaping from their prisons, which were cars and were chasing after their hot meal on wheels.

Tatiana kept her eyes on the road half the time and the other half on Alex, praying to God he didn't slip and praying to God that he could get the zombies. The first blasts of bullets must have missed, because from the rearview mirror, she could see none of the sprinting zombies falling. They seemed like they were simply running faster. They weren't experts at using guns, she was just happy they were even able to make it out of the police station alive and in one piece. She didn't know how they were going to get through this situation.

More shots, sounding amplified through the car, rang out and one of the zombies right in front of the pack fell face first into the pavement. He wasn't getting up, as the other zombies trampled over him, one less rat in the race for them. Tatiana smacked the wheel with the palm of her hand, in complete joy. Perhaps they would fight their way out. She gasped as she barely missed hitting a SUV, which seemed to have been in an accident of some sort. Alex reached his hand in and grabbed onto the seat of the car, afraid he would lose his balance.

"Can't you keep this thing straight?" Antoinette cried, obviously terrified from the pack of zombies chasing them and for Alex's safety. She sat up and grabbed onto the front of his shirt tightly, as if that would help him from tumbling to the fast moving pavement.

"I'm trying!" Tatiana shouted back, her eyes narrowed at the road as she twisted and turned around the cars. Alex aimed his rifle, she saw through the rearview mirror and started firing rounds towards the crowd of zombies. Tatiana felt a sigh of relief as two of them went down, a heavy looking man and a nurse. She swirved around and let out a mix between a scream and a gasp. A zombie was right in front of them.

She couldn't stop.

She rammed the zombie, watching it as if in slow motion, fly into the bumper and over the windsheild, over the top of the car, and then on the pavement behind them, a thick streak of greasy looking blood left on the windsheild. Drops of sweat obscured her vision and she quickly wiped them out of her eyes, putting her attention fully on the road.

"There's only about 6 more behind us..." Antoinette said, her voice sounding far away.

"Get them! Get them!" Tatiana chanted gravely to herself as she kept clenching and re-clenching the steering wheel tightly. Shots were heard from the window and Antoinette cheered. That was good. More shots.

"Please Alex! Only 4 more! Blast them fuckers!" Antoinette screamed, excited now and even bouncing around the backseat, but not letting go of the man's shirt. Tatiana glanced to Alex, sitting on the window ledge, his rifle aimed. She spotted him squeeze the trigger and not let go, letting out a hail of bullets across the front line of zombies. She looked at the road and saw a big, blue SUV getting onto the highway. The firing stopped, but then started up again. _Survivors?_

The bullets stopped and Antoinette let out of cheer of triumph, Tatiana joined in half-hearted as she kept her eyes onto the SUV comming near them on the road. Alex carefully pulled himself back in and Antoinette almost jumped from the backseat and into his arms, crying out how much she knew she could do it and how she never could have. Tatiana took her eyes off the SUV that was almost side by side with her and glanced at him.

His thick, brown hair was windswept and messy, but he was dripping with sweat, his eyes wide. He gave her a tired smile and pulled his arm from Antoinette's bear hug and placed his hand on her shoulder. She smiled energeticly and said, "You did it."

"Yeah. But there's going to be more," He said, glancing at the SUV next to them. Antoinette looked up, her head resting on Alex's shoulder, and furrowed her brow.

"They're rolling down the window..." she said slowly. Tatiana glanced and started rolling her's down. A pretty, middle aged woman with black hair pulled into a tight pony tail could be seen from the window. There were more in the truck and all of them, Tati could see from the tinted glass windows, seemed to fine and not bitten. Both vehicles slowed down to 10 miles per hour, even thou Tati felt nervous about being almost sitting ducks out in the middle of the highway.

"Hey there!," The woman shouted from the window, leaning out of it quite a bit. She had spots of dried blood on her white tank top, but there were no visable bite marks or any type of wounds on her. She seemed friendly, upbeat. She seemed very glad to see other people who were alive and not a zombie. Tatiana had a good feeling about her and the others in the car, "You all okay? Alive?"

"Yes, we're great. Where are you heading?" Tatiana said, glancing back at the road for a moment and then back to the woman.

"Anywhere safe!" The woman cried from the window while looking back at the others in the SUV. She seemed almost as if their mother, savoir, the leader.

Tatiana glanced at the signs at the edge of the road. Raven heights was only ten miles away, but there was a small town called Fishtown only half a mile away. She remembered going fishing there with her uncles and her dad. It was a tiny town, barely a thousand people there. People were mostly going on vacation there to Raven Heights or going there on day trips because it was so close by and such a nice vacation town. _Well, let's hope everyone went on vacation that day..._

"Get off on this exit, let's find a place to talk," Tatiana said, pointing to the Fishtown exit. She pulled her car to the right, the SUV following her car off the exit. She remembered there was a little gas station-slash-mini-mart where she and her family went to get bait for the fishing trip. An old man worked there, she recalled, with his elderly wife manning the mini-mart section of the station. She just hoped they took the day off and they could break in easily. And they wouldn't have to kill anyone. She couldn't imagine killing those old people...they were so nice.

She shook the unnecssary thoughts from her head and focused on where she was driving and where she was leading the people in the SUV.

* * *

Author's Note: The bears lost the superbowl...sobs

I think I just had to put that out there. And updates, once again, will be kinda comming in slower. I've been lucky enough to have the weekend off and to have two days off from such cold weather. So I am going to try and finish another chapter and put it out.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and well, that you'll review. .


	8. Trapped In By All These Mountains

**Trapped In By All These Mountains**

"We can trust them. I can tell," Maria said, rolling up the window and looking at Lleyton driving and Brandon and Natasha in the backseat. Natasha seemed recovered from her scare earlier that day and somehow seemed refreshed. She glanced up at her and slowly smiled. Maria smiled back, a motherly smile. Maria never had children. She was married to a man named Arnold, but it never really worked out. They got divorced and Arnold just disapeared and he left all of his crap at her small house.

_Thank God he did or we wouldn't have these guns _She thought, looking at the hunting rifle resting at her feet.

They had gotten off on the exit and were going down a small road that led into a town called Fishtown. She had never even heard of it. The small road, with many potholes and cracks in it, were surrounded by heavy willow trees and apple trees, with no visable fresh apples on them. The leaves were all turning golden, orange, and brown in the autumn air. She didn't see any zombies, which was a good thing.

The little red car turned left, onto a similar street that looked like it led into town. She saw a few small buildings, a laundrymat, a small resturant, and an antique store.

"This place sure isn't much to look at," Lleyton said quietly from the driver's seat.

"Boring," Natasha said, contributing to the conversation. It was the first thing she had said in a while, Maria was glad. Brandon had his arms crossed against his chest and was looking at the sights.

"Where are all the damn zombies?" Maria said, thinking out loud. She gazed through all the small shop windows but didn't see any. It was scary and very eerie, after seeing so many zombies through the streets and trapped in the homes on her block. Just as she was going to speak again, something came from one the alleys near a small coffee shop. Maria almost jumped out of her seat, but to her suprise it was just a large, golden retriever.

"So the zombies don't eat dogs?" Brandon said as they turned down another street, which seemed more empty than the first.

"I guess not. Whoa! There's one!" Lleyton said, taking a hand off the wheel to point at a zombie trapped in a old, beat up truck. It was an older man, beating on the bloodied windows, trying to escape. Maria wrinkled her nose at it and said, "Well, let's hope it doesn't break out."

The little red car pulled into the parking lot of a small gas station and they followed, parking next to it. Maria grabbed her rifle from her feet and said, "Be on your guard."

She opened up the truck door and jumped out, the feeling of cement against her running shoes feeling oh so familar. Natasha got out of the car and stayed at her side, with the little butcher knive in her hand. They had run out of rifles, but Maria knew that the shaken little teenager could never use one anyways. Maria led the girl to the glass front doors of the gas sation, which was also a mini-mart. Lleyton and Brandon followed behind them as the other survivors got out of the car.

They were all looking around catiously as they got out of their vehicle. There were two females-one an older looking woman and one who looked like a teenager, just like Natasha. The other was a man. They looked weathered, like they had just been through hell and back, which was partially true. Maria glanced from them and then into the gas sation. Everything seemed to be shut up and dark inside, except for a small TV that was placed on top of the counter near the cash register. It was on, lighting up the room just slightly and she could only see the Emergency Alert System playing over and over again on the screen.

"Can you see any inside?" The older looking woman said, glancing at her. She could feel that this was someone she was going to be close to. They seemed close in age and somehow, she could sense her attitude. She had long, wavy dark brown hair that went down to her middle back and deep, emerald green eyes that seemed so serious and concentrated. She wore a wrinkled black skirt suit which seemed to be so out of place with the rifle raised in her hands. She was ready to shoot anything suspicious.

"No. Not from here. Let's just hope there's none inside," Maria said softly, opening the door with her shoulder. She stepped inside slowly, the sound of her shoes soft taps against the tile floor. It smelled like a strange mixture of gasoline and coffee inside, which smelled somewhat good. She couldn't hear anything inside as she fully stepped in with her hunting rifle raised, the others following behind her.

In the room there was the counter, on top was the cash register, TV, and a few boxes containing lighters, candies, and other knick knacks and snacks. There was a little island that contained coffee makers, shelves of donuts and cookies, and a hot chocolate maker. There were a few shelves lined up in the room filled with various items and there were refridgerators in the back of the room. Maria heard a rustle from one of the aisles. She tensed and slowed her step, causing the others behind her to slow down as well.

She heard steps which weren't her own or any of the other survivors. There was a member of the living dead amongst them.

An old woman peeked her ugly head, which was half knawed off and the remaining half a blood soaked grimace. The woman screamed as best as she could, blood spraying from her mouth. Her scream echoed across the room as she sprinted towards them, hands outstreched to grab her and eat her. Maria raised her gun higher and squeezed the trigger.

The rifle smacked against her shoulder lightly, light enough to only sting and the poor old lady flew back into one of the refridgorators, smashing the glass and causing a rack of frozen pizzas and bags of ice to fall on her. The shot had went through her chest, but somehow she was still alive. They had figured out and from the help of the Emergency Broadcast system that a blow to the head would kill them.

Buried under the pizzas and ice, the grandma tried to free herself. She didn't take her filmed over eyes from them and her mouth was open, as if she was talking, whispering to herself. Maria aimed against, for her head, and squeezed the trigger. The rest of her head exploded in a blast of blood, brain, and ice chunks.

Everyone-well, besides Natasha-was uneffected by the dead woman in front of them, the blood dripping from some of the aisles, the large blasts from the hunting rifle, the bloodied ice. Natasha looked on with tear filled eyes. The teenager who was driving the little red car slowly brought her arm around the girl's shoulders and said, "It's okay. We saved her. We saved ourselves from becoming one of them."

The teenage girl had straight, honey blonde hair that went down to her breasts and deep, emotional icy blue eyes. She wore jeans, a black tank top, and a bloody and sweaty looking teal sweatshirt. She seemed as if she understood this all too well. Something happened to her. She lost someone important to her. The man with them seemed strong, smart, and he seemed to keep to himself somewhat. He was handsome and wore a white t-shirt and jeans.

"Well. That was plesant," Maria said, breaking the silence, "Anyways, I'm Maria Bennet."

Slowly everyone began to introduce themselves. The teenage girl was named Tatiana St. Clair, the suit wearing woman was Antoinette Butula, and the man was Alex Korolev.

"From the police station we were camping out in, we used their radios to call out to any other survivors out there. We heard from someone from Raven Heights-" The woman, Antoinette began.

"The vacation town?" Brandon said, interupting.

"Yes, exactly." Antoinette said softly and firmly, "There are a group of survivors hiding out in a hotel there. There are plenty of rooms and more than enough food there. But, there are a hoard of zombies outside, surrounding the place."

"So. We go in and kill them off and stay there?" Maria asked, leaning against the counter, next to Natasha.

"Yes. Pretty much," Tatiana said. She was against the coffee island, eating an energy bar she had taken from one of the shelves.

"Is...there any help comming?" Natasha said softly from her spot next to Maria. Everyone looked at each other. The probability of help comming was slim to none. Who knew if any of the police officers, soliders, or any of the national guard were even still alive. This plague was around the entire country, it seemed.

"We're not sure," Alex awnsered her simply. He was leaning against the back of the cash register.

"Whats going to happen to us!?" Natasha burst out, her danity voice cracking and she burst into tears, bringing her hands to her face. Her body shudder into sobs and she cried. Maria frowned and put her arms around the girl's slim frame, the sobs shaking her body as well. Seeing the helpless teenager cry wanted her to as well. But there was nothing to cry about. They had to survive. Who knew what was going to happen to them. They didn't have time to sit and mope about it.

"Nothing will happen to us. We're going to live and we're going to move on, honey. Everything will be okay," Maria said gently to her in her best motherly voice. Natasha just sobbed on her shoulder, not stopping. Maria glanced up from Natasha's curly light blonde hair to the other survivors who just helplessly looked on.

"I think I speak for all of the people who came with me," She said quietly, "We're going with you."

They decided on taking her SUV, it had more room. She and Antoinette chose who was doing what job-filling up gas canisters, gathering food, or reloading the weapons. Maria had decided she would gas up the SUV and some of the dirty gas canisters laying around with Tatiana. Maria filled up the SUV and would guard them while Tatiana filled the canisters. Antoinette, Natasha, and Brandon were packing up some of the snacks in the mini-mart into some backpacks that were for sale. They were packing things such as bread, bottles of water, and other foods that could come in handy.

Alex and Lleyton were slowly reloading the guns with the packs of ammo they had taken from some of the duffel bags in Tatiana's car.

It was about maybe 1 in the afternoon, Maria guessed. The sky was cloudly and a chilly wind blew, but the wind felt so good going through her hair and across her face. She really didn't like the small of gasoline, but it was a plesant smell to her now. Her SUV was almost out of gas when they got onto the highway, it scared her. She couldn't imagine being trapped on the highway, surrounded by the zombies and the zombies trapped in their cars, trying to escape. It made her shiver.

She kept her brown eyes scanning to the left and to the right, hunting rifle raised.

Fishtown seemed like it was a pleasant town once, the type of town where everyone knew each other and where everyone was friendly, a town where there was no real crime. The type of town she wanted to live in. But she had decided to move to the big city with her then husband Arnold, where he worked as an executive at some huge company in the city. But then he started drinking heavily and lost his job. she was a stay at home wife, because at that time, Arnold's job was more than enough money for them to get by on. They lived comfortably.

But, that was a long time ago. This was definately not a time to be thinking about any of that.

Antoinette and Natasha were bringing out the backpacks of food. There seemed to be a backpack for everyone, a little emergency kit almost. Tatiana closed the cap on one of the gas canisters and lifted it up with a tad bit of difficulty. Maria took it from her hands and carried it to the back of the SUV and set it in next to another canister. She wiped a layer of sweat from her forehead and sighed. They were lucky enough to not have any zombies around while they were doing this.

"Here's the last one, Maria," Tatiana called out, lifting up the canister. She walked slowly and set it in, groaning at the weight of it.

"As you can tell, I was not a weight lifter when things were normal," Tatiana said, her voice light and joking. Maria giggled but stopped abruptly.

She heard footsteps.

She raised her gun, pivoting on her heels glancing all around. She still heard them. _Where the fuck are you?_

Tatiana slowly moved, back against the side of the SUV. She had a cool, calm look to her face, but Maria could tell she was self-destucting in freight inside. She slowly bent over to grab her rifle that was set on the side of the truck and Maria screamed out as the zombie finally revealed itself, sprinting towards Tatiana who had dropped her gun, the zombie's and her eyes meeting.

The zombie pinned Tatiana to the side of the truck, but she wouldn't let herself die easily. She screamed out, her voice high-pitched, her hands locked around the zombie's bloody, grimmy wrists, fighting it back. Maria ran up and aimed, scared that she would hit Tatiana in all the commotion.

She had to believe in herself. She had to save her compatriot.

She squeezed the trigger and was instantly covered in gray brain matter and sticky, running blood. The limp body dropped on its knees and then on to it's side, very much dead and headless now. Tatiana, still stiff with freight, took her eyes from the body to Maria. Her face was red with blood and we clothes were now drenched. She let out something between a sigh of relief and a short, forced laugh. She ran up and hugged Maria, squeezing her tightly.

"Thank you! Thank you!," She cried, her voice cracking, "Holy shit, that thing could have killed me! I would have...been one of those things!"

"But you're not. You fine, honey. Don't thank me," Maria said, patting her back with her free hand. Alex and Lleyton, guns in hand, ran out of the gas station.

"What happened!?" Lleyton cried, running up to them, "Are you guys okay? Is anyone bit?"

Tatiana turned to them, with her arm still shakily around Maria and said, "No. No, its okay. We're fine. Maria just saved my life, so i'm good."

Maria blushed a little bit and she said, "Yeah. Can we get out of here now? Who knows how many more of those things are just hiding out here."


	9. Big Author's Note 1

Why hello everybody! Sorry I haven't updated this in FOREVER. Last week was one of the craziest/scariest weeks of my life and I haven't found the time to write anything.

My cousin went into the hospital and almost died and he's being staying with my family after being discharged...and it's just been hard. I've had to stay home all week.

Well, enough with my sob story.

I will try to get a chapter out to you guys this week because I'll be trying to catch up with homework and what have you. D

What to expect in the on comming chapters(more hints. Keep ya guess at what's comming):

- Zombies (of course. But a couple hoards or two)

- Black and white movies

- More survivors to save and to "toy" around with

- Looooooooooove

- Food fights

- swimming

And if you have anything you would like to see, add it in a review. I'd love anybodies idea.

-zombielicious


	10. Running Away and Hiding With You

**Running Away and Hiding With You**

Raven Heights: 5 miles.

"We're almost there," Tatiana whispered to Natasha, who sat next her in the back of the truck. They were surrounded by the bags of food, cardboad boxes filled with food from Maria's house, duffel bags of ammuntion and guns, and the canisters of gas. It was fairly cramped and their skinny legs were knocking together, but they didn't mind that much. Natasha Griffen, the youngest member of Maria's group, was only two years younger than her. Tatiana somehow felt close to her because of that and also because somehow, they seemed alike.

"I can't wait to take a shower," Natasha said, smiling a bit. At first the scared 17 year old had seemed hopeless and utterly freightened. But after getting back on the road and talking to Tatiana, she had calmed down. The freight that distorted her face had disapeared into an almost serene smiling face.

"Oh, me too. And I really need a change of clothes," Tatiana said, giggling. It was true. Her teal sweatshirt was stained with dried, deep red blood and sweat and brain matter clung to her jeans and shoes. Natasha was wearing shorts and she knew that she wasn't too comfortable with her legs out in the open, unprotected and easy targets for zombies to get at.

It seemed so werid, talking about clothes and what they were going to do once they got to the hotel, like this wasn't an emergency and they were actually going on vacation in the lovely, sight-filled town.

Lleyton was driving the SUV down the highway and in the passenger seat next to him was Maria. She kept her eyes on the vehicles that were haphazardly parked on the road, looking at the zombies trapped inside. Old zombies, young zombies, even children zombies. It was just all apart of their new world. Once in a while, Maria would glance in the backseat, where Brandon, Antoinette, and Alex sat and then to her and Natasha.

No zombies had broken out of their vehicle prisons, which gave them not much of a reason to worry. It made easy traveling to their destination.

Many billboards advertising many water-parks, resturants, and shows in the town were comming up and it was almost a sign of hope to them. It showed them they were that much closer to getting with other survivors, that much closer to getting to a, for the moment, sanctuary.

"Will we...be safe, Tati?" Natasha questioned her softly, "At the hotel?"

"Yes. Most definately." Tatiana reassured her.

Hell, she didn't know. From the way the many Jeff explained it, there was just a crowd of zombies outside the hotel. There was a fire escape that he and some other people in his group would be waiting for them on and they just had to get up there, unscathed from the zombies. It wasn't that hard. They shouldn't have any trouble. _Shouldn't. _

"We'll be okay, Natasha. Don't worry about it," Tatiana said, putting her arm around her shoulder. She never had siblings. She was the spoiled only child of the city's DA. And really, none of her friends had siblings. A few did, but they were much older than them and had jobs and families or were getting out of college. Natasha felt like her long lost little sister to her and she was her older sister. It was her job to protect her little sister and she'd do it.

Lleyton pulled off at the upcomming exit and everyone tensed. The exit led onto a more barren road, surrounded by large pine trees and little houses. But as they kept going down the road, more large billboards could be seen.

_Raven's Eye Casino - 1/2 mile!_

_Pizza Palace - Next to The Wild Wolf Resort!_

Tatiana turned from her spot in the back, facing the hatch and stood up on her knees to look out of the windsheild. The pretty, earthy scenery faded out into a few car dealerships, which were utterly empty from where they could see. Then a few resturants crowded together came into few and the large Raven's Eye Casino did too. There were many cars parked in the casino parking lot, but no zombies could be spotted. The resturants had a few cars parked in their lots, but none were too full.

"The casino is going to be a hot spot for zombies," Antoinette thought outloud. She held her face in her hands and was gazing out the window at the buildings and she had a very thoughtful look on her face.

"They're probally all locked up in there," Brandon said, "They were minding their own buisness, playing slots and what not, and well...a zombie just happened to stumble in. End of story."

"Let's just stay away from there for a long time," Maria said, her voice hinted with laughter and fear, "Well, at least until we have an army of our own and like flamethrowers and bazookas."

Tatiana smiled at that, until she saw a zombie beating on the glass of a resturant called Pizza Pub. It was a large woman, and she could spot about three little kids behind her, trying to get past her girth to pound on the windows themselves. _Oh god please. Just stay the fuck in there _Tatiana thought, her eyes widening.

But luck didn't seem to be on their side.

The window smashed and right at first, the large woman was pushed down to her face by the children and the children began to chase after the car. There were two little girls and maybe a pre-teen boy. They looked very decayed, but that didn't slow them down a bit.

"Holy fuck! Holy fuck!" Natasha screamed, her voice fairly high pitched. Eveyrone's head was turned round to the hatch besides Lleyton, who had sweat dripping down his forehead at a rapid rate and as trying as best as he could to concentrate on the road, despite the zombies who were chasing after the SUV. The large woman was getting up now, revealing a large rip in her once pink blouse. The leftovers of her intestines flopped out and she began running, her fat not slowing her down too bad.

"Tatiana. You have to shoot out the hatch. Now!" Brandon screamed at her, panic taking over his entire face, distorting it. Tatiana's eyes widened fearfully as he pushed his hunting rifle in her hands. She was shaking, but she knew she had to do it. A layer of sweat covered her face and arms as Lleyton opened the window of the hatch for her to lean out of. She was scared.

"Hold on to me!" She said fearfully as she rested her arms on the tailgate and got ready to aim. Natasha wrapped an arm around her waist and braced a foot against the tailgate, thinking smart even during the panic.

The three children and large woman were close behind and 3 more zombies had come out of their hiding places to chase after them for just a little bite out of them. The world seemed to slow down a bit for her. This was important. Her entire group was counting on her. She couldn't fail and let the zombies get to them.

She aimed for the large woman's fat, flabby head and squeezed the trigger. The woman fell flat on her face, the second time of the day, as blood splattered the pavement and the zombies behind her trampled her now dead body. She aimed again, this time at a little girl who was chasing and she aimed and fired.

She dropped like a fly, the other zombies trampling over her as well.

Aimed. And fired.

Aimed. And fired.

It wasn't all that hard. After the head of a african-american man exploded and he dropped to his knees on the pavement, there were none of them left chasing the SUV. Tatiana sighed and leaned on the rifle with the butt digging into the carpet. Natasha took her arm from her waist and pulled the hatch shut, letting the last gust of almost bittersweet smelling wind into the truck.

Tatiana handed Brandon back his rifle and leaned against the back of the seats, closing her eyes and just breathing. She wiped her forehead with her sweatshirt sleeve and she heard Maria say, "You did good."

She was dead tired, she just realized. She felt utterly smelly, sweaty, and disgusting. She wanted a shower, new clothes, a nice hot meal, and a normal bed to sleep in.

"Is that the hotel?" Lleyton asked, slowing the SUV down to a crawl. Tatiana sat up, her shoulder colliding with Natasha's as they both looked out the windsheild in unision once again.

The hotel in front of them was a large white building and some areas red brick was decoratively placed. It would have been a lovely hotel to stay in if there wasn't a hoard of blood thirsty zombies outside, bashing at the windows with their bloody fists and trying to break down the large front door the same way. Tatiana saw three people standing on the fire escape- two men and a woman. They were waving their arms franticly, as if waving down a plane. _Maybe their keeping the zombies concentrated on them._

"We have to take this chance! Use the sunroof to shoot some of the zombies down and we can just drive up to the fire escape and climb onto the ladder," Tatiana said, her voice strong and thoughtful. The woman held the ladder for the fire escape up in her hands. If they let it down now, the zombies would bum rush her and either pull it down or well...figure out how to climb it, but that wouldn't happen.

Alex scrambled to get his rifle that had slid under the seat during the zombie chase and Lleyton was holding the button the opened the sunroof down while Antoinette and Brandon checked their own guns. Once the sun roof was open, the three of them somehow squeezed themselves into the opening and took aim.

Through the sound of hungry, moaning zombies, the gunshots blasted through the air and Tatiana could see three zombies go down. The hoard the of zombies turned to them and seen. They ran to the SUV, surrounding it and the zombies that were in front of the hoard were smashing on the windows, smearing the glass with blood. More shots were heard and more in back were falling down.

There were maybe 25 zombies surrounding the SUV. It was scary, even thou Antoinette, Alex, and Brandon were shooting them down slowly. Tatiana could see more zombies trickling out from buildings and she could hear her heart going faster. The guns kept going off but the zombies seemed to just keep comming.

When blood was dripping from the windows and Lleyton had to use the windsheild wipers to keep the windsheild clean, Maria said, "We can't keep sitting here. Just run those fuckers over!" and she waved her hand animatedly towards the 3 zombies trying to crawl onto the hood of the car. There were only maybe 10 or so zombies around.

"Okay..." Lleyton said nervously, putting the SUV into drive. He pressed his foot on the accelerator and sped forword. The three shooters quickly pulled themselves from the sunroof as one zombie flew sideways after being hit from the bumper and two zombies went flying over the car. They fell back into the remaining zombies and Lleyton sped up to were the three people were waiting at the fire escape. The women slowly dropped the ladder and it landed near the sunroof.

Maria pulled out her rifle and climbed into the backseat, taking her role as their leader. She climbed out of the sun roof with no difficulty, her years of work at the gym paying off now. She stood up and looked around the SUV and at the zombies reaching up at her, moaning for her.

"Bring up some of the backpacks. We can't just leave the supplies in here," She said into the sunroof. Natasha pulled two of the backpacks filled with foods and medical items and pushed them through the sunroof. Maria put one on her back and used the other one's strap and tossed it around her shoulder. She got onto the ladder and started climbing up, the moans and groans of the zombies getting more louder and frustrated.

Once Maria made it onto the fire escape, the woman took one of the backpacks from her and put it on her back and she ushered Maria into the window that led onto the fire escape. Antoinette grabbed the last two backpacks and started climbing up herself.

When everyone went up, they each took some of the items. Brandon took one of the duffel bags, Alex did too. They shoved the blankets, extra water, and canned food into the duffel bags. Lleyton went up and then Natasha did.

Tatiana pulled herself up through the sunroof as Natasha made it onto the fire escape. Tatiana stood up on the roof of the SUV and glanced around her. The zombies were going insane around her, desperate to eat her flesh. Tatiana grapsed onto the cold metal ladder rung and slowly pulled herself up.

She climbed the ladder and when to the top she grabbed onto the fire escape and the woman who stood up there with the two men took her hand to help pull her up. Just as she was going to pull herself up onto the fire escape, her foot slipped on the rung.

Her whole body dropped from the ladder and the woman holding her hand now was holding her life in her hands and if she let go, Tatiana would drop into the hoard of zombies below. She began to scream wildly and she pulled her feet back onto the rungs but couldn't pull herself up just by herself. The woman tried pulling her up, but she was too weak.

"Help!" The woman screamed, her accent spanish. The two men who once stood on the fire escape had gone in with the others. Alex poked his head out from the window and once he saw Tatiana hanging there, he rushed out and ran to the woman. and took Tatiana's other hand in his.

"It's okay, Tati. We got you," He said to her softly. Tatiana began to feel tears in her eyes as the woman and Alex heaved her up onto the fire escape. As she got to her knees on the metal fire escape, Alex placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He said, his voice sounding absolutely shaken. Tatiana looked up, wiping the stray tears in her eyes and laughed at him.

"Wow, you do care about me!" She said, getting up and going to the window, "But I'm fine. Thanks. Thank you for saving me."

"No problem," Alex said, smiling at her lightly. He pulled the ladder up and set it next to the window and followed Tatiana in through the window.

_Too close. Too close._

_

* * *

_

**Author's Note: **I just feel unhappy with this story right now?

Do you guys REALLY like it?

yeah. its just me being werid.

I felt inspired to write a little bit after reading a few chapters from a Resident Evil book. I love the RE book series. GAAAH!!! lol. Read and Review please!

ANY IDEAS ARE GLADLY TAKEN. tehe.


	11. I See Your Face, It's Haunting Me

**I See Your Face, It's Haunting Me**

"I didn't know hotels had fire escapes," Antoinette said, a smile was glued on her face. Her cheeks were rosy red and she seemed very happy to be with a large group of people and in a safe enviornment with nice beds to sleep in, showers, and food.

Tatiana, Antoinette, Brandon, Maria, Natasha, Lleyton, and Alex stood in the a hallway somewhere in the hotel, Tatiana presumed on the 3rd floor. She guessed there were seven floors at the most.

The hallway seemed very comfortable, with plush tan carpet with little pink flowers in it and the walls were painted an off white color with wood panaling below. Tatiana thought it looked very nice and made her feel somewhat at home. Many dark wood doors lined the walls. The two men and the woman stood before them.

The woman looked hispanic and looked maybe in her mid 20's. She had deep, admirable tan skin and silky black hair tied into a braid that only felt to her shoulders and she had warm caramel colored eyes. She wore high waisted jeans, a red t-shirt and a white blouse with black running shoes on.

One of the men had thin rimmed glasses on and had spikey blondish-brunette hair and smart blue eyes. He was fairly thin and looked a tad bit muscular and he wore a black sweater, jeans, and white running shoes. The other man had thick black hair and a matching thick black mustache and beard. His skin was tan, but from doing hard work in the sun and he was big, at least 6'5 and was very muscular, but a tad bit chubby. He wore a black, slightly faded t-shirt, black pants, and bright tan work books that seemed very worn in.

"I'm glad you made it here in one piece. It's good to finally see you guys," The big, tall man said. He outstreched and shook hands with every member of Tatiana's group and introduced himself as Jeff.

"This is Rosita and Scott," Jeff said, motioning towards the woman and man next to him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. Really. It's just amazing how good it feels to be with other survivors," Maria said, looking over Scott, Rosita, and Jeff carefully. She seemed somehow pleased with the people and the hotel.

"Likewise," Rosita said. Her voice was prim, crisp, and somehow musical. "We almost thought we were the last ones in the state almost."

"We have some hot food down in the lobby for you," Scott chimed in. He seemed fairly old, but somewhat childish. Or maybe just shy in the situation and he hadn't found his job yet.

Tatiana could feel her stomach growl at the thought of hot food. She had been surviving on pretzils, energy bars, candy, and soda for the past few days and a hot cooked meal sounded great. She glanced around at everyone around her and they also seemed excited for a somewhat home cooked meal. _This is our home now._

Jeff led the way to the elevators down the hall and they rode them down to the first floor.

The first floor was made up of a lobby with a reception desk and waiting area, a resturant, a pool, a utility room and the area where the stairs and elevators were located.

The group walked in a hoard as Jeff, Rosita, and Scott led the way into the resutrant, an absolutely delicious smell coming from the room. The lobby had a dark green, plush carpet and had white wallpaper on the walls. There were many wall hangings and paintings on the walls, paintings of cities, gardens, and countrysides mostly. The resturant had a sort of night time feel, with lit candals on the circular tables and dark colored table clothes on them. There was a bar in the back of the resturant and swinging double doors which led into the kitchen. The floor had went from the green carpet to a pretty, darkwood flooring.

The largest rectangular shaped table in the room had nothing on it but a plain white table cloth and a few candals, lit and glowing.

A girl opened the double doors with her back and said, "C'mon Lucie! Cups!"

She turned and almost dropped the large ammount of silverware in her hands and she giggled at her clumsyness. She had almost white blonde hair and from the dim light, she seemed to have very bright, blue eyes. She seemed just the same age as her and Natasha. She wore a stripped polo shirt and blue jeans. She seemed like before any of this happened, she was very outgoing, athletic, and had lots of friends. Tatiana thought they would probally get along well. She hoped so.

"Welcome! Nice to meet you all!" She said, her voice friendly and sweet, with a bit of a texan accent. She dropped the silverware, carefree, onto the table and walked over to them and shook hands vigorously with them all.

"The name's Bryanne. It's great to meet you," She said, smiling at them, her face wrinkling sweetly at them.

Two more girls came out of the swinging doors, one carrying cups and the other carrying plates.

The girl carrying the plates seemed maybe just 20 or so and she had her deep, golden hair tied into a high pony tail that sat on the top of her head and she had green eyes, bright and almost freightful looking. She wore a denim skirt, a yellow tank top, and a white sweatshirt. She seemed very shy and she kept glancing at them nervously, but when someone looked at her, she looked down at the wood floor as fast as she could. _She'll lighten up _Tatiana thought softly.

The last girl, the one carrying the plates, was young as well, with reddish-brown hair that hung around her shoulders and she wore glasses, which almost hid her chocolate brown eyes. She wore a baggy black hoodie and blue jeans which had a large splash of red on it, the red splash looked like spagetti sauce more than blood.

Jeff came up to the front of the crowd and said, "Guys, this is Hilary and Lucie. We cooked up some spagetti for you guys. We know you probally didn't have much to eat out on the road."

"Ooh! All this for us?" Natasha whispered, slipping her arm in Tatiana's. Tatiana glanced at her and raise her eyebrow happily and said, "Spagetti!"

"You're too kind, you really didn't have to do this for us," Maria said, gracefully. Jeff motioned for them to all sit down and Tatiana picked a spot in the middle of Natasha and Antoinette.

"We've really just been eating sandwiches for the past few days. A nice hot meal is a luxury I suppose," Lucie, the shy girl, said. She seemed to be opening up as everyone started quietly talking to each other. Lucie, Bryanne, and Hilary set up the plates, cups, and silverware at each placemat as Jeff shouted in the kitchen, "C'mon guys, come out and introduce yourselves!"

Everyone seemed at heart, very friendly. Tatiana glanced to the front doors and windows that she noticed from outside. There were benches, chairs, furinture, and even tall, plotted plants blocking off the doors and windows. _When we get settled in, we have to find a better way to reinforce that _she thought as she clasped her hands together on top of the table cloth.

"Where are ya'll from?" Bryanne asked everyone, her shocking blue eyes glancing around the table. She seemed to be very excited with everyone sitting down at the table. Almost like a family, it seemed, "I'm originally from Texas, myself."

Antoinette smiled right away. She didn't seem like the one who wanted to talk about what was going on, she'd rather ignore it and try and use small talk to take her mind off things. "I'm from New York, Brooklynn. I just moved here 3 years ago. It's a nice place."

Tatiana looked over to the double doors as three men came out, one carrying a pot of sauce and meatballs and one carrying a large plate of long, stingy noodles.

"Everyone, This is Aiden-" Jeff said, walking over to the trio of men as they set the food down on the table. Aiden was a skinny, tall teenager who had thick sandy brown hair and almost defenseless looking hazel eyes. After he had set down the plate of noodles, he had immediately placed his pale hands into the pockets of his black band hoodie. He also wore baggy jeans and a grey t-shirt.

"And this is James, but we just call him Jimmy-" Jeff continued, motioning towards a buff, but short man next to Aiden. He waved, he had slightly tan skin and his black hair was highlighted with light blonde. He seemed like he was maybe 30, but he was trying to act 20. He had bright, sparkling blue eyes that seemed young and he wore blue jeans, ripped of course becuase that was the style these days, and a black polo. Tatiana hid her giggle behind her hand. It was so werid to be judging people when they were all lucky to be alive, but maybe that too was a luxury of this new life.

"And this is Ethan," Jeff conluding, patting the teenager on the other side of Aiden on the shoulder. Ethan had curly, dark brown hair and cold, almost angry looking black eyes. he wore a black zip up sweatshirt and black pants. He didn't say anything, he didn't raise his eyes up to acknowledge them. He didn't seem friendly at all.

The woman, Hilary, stood up and said, "It's okay guys, sit down, please. Let's not let the food get cold." She smiled, her teeth sparkling white as the men sat down and everyone began dishing up their plates with the warm, delicious, and steaming food.

Small talk commensed, as if they were at a dinner party at a relatives house. Everyone was trying to act perfect, like they had no flaws and there was nothing wrong, but underneath that facade was the truth that everything was wrong. Nothing was how it should be and well, they were trying to find a way to fix that.

Bryanne, Antoinette, and Maria were the most talkative of the bunch, speaking of pets, hobbies, and of how everyone had met up. The men were quiet, they enjoyed their meal as if it was their last. Tatiana kept quiet herself.

She was dead tired, barely able to keep her eyes open even thou seeing the black clock on the wall that it was maybe around 4 o clock.

Everytime a particular noise came from the haphazard baricade, everyone would stop talking and look to the front doors, scared. Then they would focus on their food and then continue talking as if it never happened. Tatiana could faintly hear the hungry moans of the remaining zombies. There had to be alot more out in the town, but maybe just trapped in houses and the local water parks and casinos.

When dinner was finished up, Lucie and Hilary began clearing up plates. Everyone was slowly getting up and mingling in the lobby. Jeff, Maria, and Alex were grouped around the front door, talking of how to reinforce the doors better. Antoinette and Brandon were handing out the extra guns from the black duffel bags to Rosita and Jimmy.

Jeff had said, during dinner, that while some sleeped, two people would keep guard near the front door to make sure no zombies were to break in. Now one person could keep guard at the front door and another could keep guard on the roof. If too many zombies were to crowd around the hotel, they would have to take some out.

"What did you use for weapons before?" Maria had asked, her voice sounded very respectful and awestruck.

"Well, we had no choice. Lamps, brooms, mops. Anything we could find," Scott had replied.

Rosita looked terribly dangerous with the gun, a force to be reckoned with. She was pulling on a red plaid coat over her blouse and t-shirt. She glanced at Tatiana and she smiled warmly. When she looked down to zipper up her jacket, her expression went back to almost serious and scared. Lucie and Hilary were heading back to the kitchen when Tatiana stood up.

"Please, let me help you with the dishes," She said, walking up to them and grabbing some of the stack from Lucie's hands. It would help to start out on a good note, be helpful. After all, these people were letting them stay in the hotel along with them and they would have to be partners now.

"No, no, really Tatiana," Lucie said, leaning the plates on her hip and pulling the stack out of her hands, "You just got here and you almost fell off that ladder. Please, relax. You earned it." Some of her golden hair slipped out of the barrette that held stray pieces of hair out of her face and she smiled sweetly at her as she and Hilary stepped back into the kitchen. Tatiana caught a glance in there-everything, everything was made of what looked like stainless steel. The refridgorators, the freezers, the sink, and racks to keep the silverware.

Tatiana sighed to herself. Despite being tired and almost homesick, she wanted to help them, she didn't want to just sit here. She walked over to where Jeff was, behind the front desk. He was pulling key cards from the racks of slots behind the desk, keeping track of what he took out from the slots.

"Hey," He said, glancing back at her as he wrote down a number on his notepad.

"Hey," Tatiana replied, standing next to him and leaning against the row of key cards, "What are you doing?"

"Getting out your room keys," He said, closing the notebook and turning to her. He held out his hand, one of the thing white and red key cards inbetween his fingertips. Tatiana grabbed it and looked at it and said, "Thank you. Do you need help?"

"I'm fine. You relax," He said softly. He walked into the middle of the lobby and said, addressing everyone in the room, "I have the room keys!"

He slowly walked to everyone who had just arrived their white and red room keys. Everyone looked relieved and began to head to the elevators together, Bryanne showed them the way. Tatiana caught up and followed them through the open elevator doors and she felt like it took forever for the elevator to start up, and descend to the 3rd floor once again. The soft music played still and she found it a little ironic that it still played.

Bryanne acted as hostess and she showed everyone to their rooms. Lleyton was by Antoinette, and Antoinette was by Alex. Alex was across from her room, and she was next to Bryanne, Maria, Lucie, Aiden, Rosita and Jimmy. Tatiana opened the door to her room using the keycard and she felt herself relax. She glanced out the door of her room to see Alex just getting into his. He glanced back at her and smiled, before stepping in and closing the door. She smiled to herself.

The room had a square looking bed, with a plain red comforter and three fluffly white pillows. There was a small nook in the room, with a small microwave, coffee maker, and tiny refridgorator. There was a small table in the room with two chairs and there was a comfortable looking red love seat in the room and a side table on each side of the bed with large red lamps on them. There was two last pieces of furniture in the room, a large horizontal dresser and a TV. There was a large mirror above the dresser as well.

Tatiana closed the door behind her and let her back rest against it. She looked over the room again, taking it all in again.

She only felt lonely looking at the impersonal look of the room. The plain, shocking white color of the room, a painting of what seemed to be Paris at nighttime hanging on the wall and even the fake plotted plant sitting in the middle of the small table in the corner of the room. At least she had a balcony. She loved to stay in hotels with balconies. She could remember going out of state and staying in a hotel with her dad with one. They would wake up and drink coffee on it, on the little table that was placed on it and before bed, talk there too. The memory comforted her.

She stepped over to the sliding glass doors that led to the balcony, her footsteps quieted from the deep red carpet being so plush and soft and she slid them open. The air smelt like blood but some of the cold autumn air could be smelled through it. She walked up to the black metal railing and leaned against it. She tried to ignore the hungry moans comming from below and she just stared at the sun slowly setting across the horizon.

"Why do I feel so lonely? I have well...'Friends' here. But I can't shake this feeling," She said, staring up to the sky. The sky was colored deep purple, red, and a bit of blue. She glanced towards the door as she heard a soft knock against it. She stepped off the baclcony and closed the door, the room now colder as she jogged to the door. She opened it and was suprised to see Bryanne standing outside of the door, carrying a large pink and white duffel bag.

"Oh. Hi, Bryanne, what's up?" She said, opening the door wider so Bryanne and her duffel bag could squeeze through.

"Sorry, Tatiana, to bother you, but I thought you might need some extra clothes," She said, setting the bag on the loveseat. Her soft southern accent was somewhat soothing to her.

"Where...did you get these," Tatiana said, standing next to her as she unzipped the duffel bag. From what she could see there was a couple pairs of jeans in the bag, some polos and t-shirts and two sets of pajamas.

"They...were my sisters," Bryanne said. Her voice faltered and Tatiana could see a tear drip down her soft cheeks. Tatiana put her arm around her and said, "Bryanne, really, I am fine. You keep these."

"My family. My dad, step-mom, and step-sister were going sight-seeing here and this was the hotel we were staying in. I wasn't old enough to go to the casino, so they went and left me here. They said I could order room service and movies, anything I wanted. And...then I heard the screaming, "She said, her voice sounding very husky and she kept having to stop from crying. Tatiana hugged her tighter.

"I'm sorry, I am really sorry-"

"You have these, please, have them," She said, her voice almost returning to normal. She glanced up at her and said, "Please, keep them."

She pulled away from her and wiped her tears away with her red and blue polo sleeve. "I think they would fit you, perfect fit. Please, have them."

"Okay...," Tatiana said, placing a reassuring hand on Bryanne's shaking shoulder. The sweet, happy southern bell attitude the girl had was gone, revealing a scared, defenseless little girl. "Thank you, Bryanne."

Bryanne nodded to her and headed towards the door, still sniffling. "I'm sorry I bothered you, I just thought you'd want them."

"No, you weren't bothering me. Please, If you ever need someone to talk to, I am always here for you. Promise?"

"Promise," She replied, sniffling once more and then smiling. "Good night, Tatiana."

Tatiana nodded to her as she opened the door and exited. Tatiana shrugged her shoulders and ran her hands through her hair. Everyone was suffering in their own ways. Hiding it, showing it, ignoring it. But everyone was suffering.

Tatiana pulled a set of the pajamas out of the pink duffel bag, a pair of dark blue pants and a light blue tank top. She turned on lights in the room, one on the side table and the lights on the ceiling. She walked into the bathroom and turned on the lights on the ceiling. The bathroom was tiny, but comfortable looking. The walls weren't the bright, overpowering white, but a light tannish brown. The shower was large and had glass doors on it and the sink was fairly large and the mirrior in the room was fairly small.

She undressed, piling the sweaty bloody clothes on the floor and stepped into the shower. She turned it on, letting the hot water spray down on her. The hot water was so comforting and the steam rising from it was such a luxury in her mind.

After showering, combing her hair with the brush from Bryanne's sister's bag and piling her dirty clothes in the corner, she layed on the bed and turned on the TV using the channel changer on the side table. There was nothing on. Just white noise and civil defense warnings. After clicking through all of the channels, she came upon a black and white movie.

A girl and boy, teenagers, were dancing in the rain and they were happy. The boy spun the girl around, and brought her in close and then kissed her. Their first kissed.

Tatiana turned off the lights in the room and settled under the red comforter. She kept the TV on, feeling almost as if a zombie would appear in her bathroom and come and well...she ignored the thought and kept the TV on. She settled on her side and closed her eyes. She felt like all she could see was zombies.

Now that she was finally in her warm, new, comfortable bed, showered and clean and happy...she couldn't sleep like she wanted to. She felt the zombies haunting her, the zombie of her father haunting Her. She faced the ceiling and wiped the tears out of her eyes. She could understand what Bryanne was going through.

At least she didn't know what happened to her parents. They could be alive, in the casino, wondering what's happen with her. But her father was dead, one of those things, eating other people and killing people. Turning people into zombies.

She held back the tears. She had cried enough. She cried then, but she wouldn't cry now.

She went back on her side and closed her eyes tightly. She counted sheep and took her mind off it. She fell alsleep, but slowly. And in her ears the zombies were moaning and groaning for her. For her flesh. She dreamt of darkness.


	12. I'll Hold Your Hand

**I'll Hold Your Hand**

Morrning should usually be sunny, with birds chirping and singing outside your window and you are comfortably at home and your parents are making a delicious breakfast in the kitchen. But that wasn't how Tatiana's day started out.

"Hello?" Tatiana said groggily into the phone. She glanced out the window and shut her eyes from the fairly dim grey light comming out of it. It wasn't too bright out, but still bright enough for her sleep sensitive eyes.

"Did someone ask for a wakeup call?" A texan accented voice said through the phone. Bryanne.

Tatiana laughed sleepily and said, "It's too early!"

"Breakfast is ready! Come and get it," Bryanne said, laughing. Tatiana barely heard the click of the other phone hanging up. She placed the phone back on the cradle and slammed her head back on the fluffy, rumpled pillow.

She was up now, tangled in the red comforter with a bleak, damp grey sky staring out at her through the balcony's sliding glass doors. It was raining, very lightly, but it was comforting somehow. She always liked rainy days, it always made her feel better somehow. She sat up in the bed again, leaning her back against the darkwood headboad attached to the bed. Another black and white movie was on the TV, the television set was one mute. A girl was running through a field of flowers.

Tatiana swung her bare feet onto the plush carpeting and she streched her arms up. The bed was very comforting, it was much more comfortable than the police station hard leather couch.

The days of living in the police station seemed so long ago. Years ago, in fact.

She pulled out some clothes from the pink and white duffel bag and stripped out of her pajamas and pulled them on. She had pulled out a pair of darkwash jeans, a white t-shirt, and a dark pink hoodie. It felt good to be in new clothes, not the stinking and bloodied old clothes she had worn. She glanced to the pile of the clothes she once wore and she told herself she'd probally throw them away. Or wash them somewhere.

She slipped on a pair of white tennis shoes she found tucked underneath the pile of clothes in the bag and she brushed her hair, sighing heavily to herself. This seemed all to normel. She was expecting to her a crash from downstairs or windows breaking or anything. Not just this normel morrning where you get dressed and go eat breakfast.

Maybe she even got a rush from the killing of zombies. One of them killed her father. One of them killed Alex's little sister. One of them or many of them killed Bryanne's family. One of them probally killed Natasha's family. All of them suffered the same. The zombies deserved to die, once and for all.

After brushing her hair, turning off the television, and neatly making her bed, she stepped out of the hotel room and she made sure she had her keycard in her pocket. The hallway was empty and very lonely. After this entire experience, Tatiana realized how much she hated being alone. She walked quickly down the hallway and to the elevator, feeling as if a set of eyes were on her. The elevator ride was uneventful, she merely leaned against the glass panaling in the small area and sighed, watching her breath fog up the glass.

When the doors slid open, she stepped into the lobby. She could see Maria and Antoinette giggling together at one of the circular tables, drinking coffee and eating cinnamon rolls. Scott was leaning against a wall near the entrance, a rifle in his hands and a cup of orange juice sitting at his feet next to him and Bryanne was sitting at one of the circular tables alone.

Tatiana couldn't get the image of innocent Bryanne crying to her in her room last night. She felt a shiver go up her spine slightly.

Antoinette glanced back at her and smiled and motioned towards the small buffet table they must have set up earlier, shaking her from her tearful thoughts. On the table, there were pots of coffee, steaming hot and fresh, and cinnamon rolls and even muffins. There was also the cereal, milk, and orange and apple juice.

Tatiana grabbed a plate, which seemed almost warm from washing or warm from being near the warm food. On her plate, she put a chocolate chip muffin and she poured herself a glass of apple juice. Speaking of memories, she could remember spending the night at her friend's beach house. They had spent the night laughing together, running around the beach under the moonlight and splashing the still warm water at each other. In the morrning, they had blueberry muffins and drank from the apple juice jug.

It was a pleasant memory that almost made her heart ache as she sat next to Bryanne, who had her white blonde hair held high in messy ponytail and wore light pink pajamas.

"Good morrning!" Bryanne said, through a mouthful of sticky cinnamon roll. Tatiana smiled up at her. She seemed to be better now, but Tatiana could really understand her.

"Morrning," Tatiana said, pulling the baking cup off of the freshly baked muffin, "This is quite extravagant."

"You would be suprised," Bryanne said softly, "In the kitchen, there are all kinds of muffin mixes and stuff. Little boxes of cereal. Typical breakfast foods."

"Like a continental breakfast," Tatiana said, taking a bite of the muffin. The chocolate chips melted in her mouth with the sweet bread. Rosita came out of the kitchen, wearing a red, faded coat. She had a tupperware bowl of some of the cinnamon rolls and muffins in there and she held two water bottles.

"It's for Jimmy and Lucie. They have watch duty on the roof," Bryanne said, noticing the inquiring look on her face. "Did you know that Rosita and Jimmy are married?

Rosita walked towards the elevators, humming a tune to herself. She had smiled at them warmly.

Just like a regular breakfast conversation between friends.

Rosita and Jimmy had been married for 5 years now. They didn't live in Raven Heights, but they lived in a diffrent state, Washington. In a little cabin in the woods. They had two children, twins, 1 year olds. Ashley and Amber. Rosita and Jimmy were going on their "honeymoon" here, to sight see and to do many things, like snorkeling while the water was still warm. They left little Ashley and Amber behind, with Jimmy's parents.

Who knew if little Amber and Ashley, who had to be absolutely gorgous with Rosita's Spanish hertiage and Jimmy's plain good looks, were still alive.

It made her depressed. But glad to be around so many people this. She wanted to get to know everyone better, to be a family. She rested her head in her hands and listen to Bryanne animatedly talk. Tatiana liked the way Bryanne could just forget what was going on around them and keep her feelings to herself, how her eyes lit up and twinkled insanely over whatever she was talking about.

"Rosita...I've only been here a few days and I feel like she's my mother," Bryanne said, laughing as she ran up to the buffet to get another cinnamon roll. Tatiana took a sip of her apple juice and brought her legs up to the chair and crossed them, indian style. Bryanne stood, swaying slightly and slowly picking apart the gooey roll.

"What was life like for you?" Tatiana asked slowly, bringing her cup down in her lap to rest in her hands, "Back when things were normal."

Bryanne smiled slightly, more like she smiled to herself than to her.

"It was fun."

Tatiana nodded.

"My family, we lived in a 2 story white house. It was an old plantation back when there were slaves and overseers and what not, the generally south stuff, ya know? It was an amazing house, I loved it. I always thought I saw ghosts there too...but maybe I never did, maybe it was just my imagination, right? Well...anyways, we had lots of fields and woodsy areas to run through. It was the greatest place to be during the summer, very warm and sunny. My step-mom was the owner of a clothing store in town and was usually always making dresses and stuff...I would help her as much as I can, i'm not too good at sewing," She explained and she laughed at herself at the end.

Tatiana kept nodding as she explained. Bryanne came to sit back next to her and set the half eaten cinnamon roll down on her plate, obviously forgotten.

"My dad was a house builder and was always making up plans to add onto our house, but he never did. And my sister, she was...an angel..."

"You don't have to go on if you don't want to, Bry-"

"We went to the same school. She was smart, very smart. Never failed anything in her life and she always did her best at everything. We both played soccer too," She explained, ignoring the interuption. She turned to Tatiana and grinned wildly, what Tatiana began to know at the typical Bryanne smile. "We'll play soccer together one day, okay?"

"Sure. I'm not too athletic at anything...but I promise, we will," Tatiana said, oddly feeling tears prick at her eyes. She ignored it and drained the cup of juice she had. Rosita came back down, her arm linked with Jimmy's. She smiled sweetly at everyone, like a blushing bride. Jimmy sat down at one of the tables and Tatiana realized that both Maria and Antoinette were gone. Rosita took off her jacket and put it on the back of one of the chairs and she went to the buffet to make two cups of coffee for her and her husband.

Lucie came in, streching her arms, her cheeks flushed, and her golden hair was windswept. She smiled shyly and Tatiana and Bryanne and slowly took off her lime green coat before grabbing a cup of coffee herself. She sat down by herself at a table, but one close to herself and Bryanne.

"She's very shy," Bryanne whispered, just barely loud enough for Tatiana to hear. Lucie stared down at the steaming cup of thick, tar colored coffee, as if looking at herself through a mirror.

"Tatiana, its your turn to go," Rosita called from her table with Jimmy. She noticed that their hands were entertwined on the table top, just like as if they were in a little cafe downtown at nighttime. Romantics.

"Turn?" Tatiana asked, turning around in her chair. Rosita nodded and pointed to a piece of paper that hung on the wall with a piece of yellowish tape, near the front desk.

"We made up a chart to see will be on guard for the roof and down here. Your on the roof, with Alex. Until 1," Rosita said, nodding again.

"Oh. Wow. Okay. Sounds fun," Tatiana said, getting up from her chair and streching. Her muscles felt sore, enough from the comfortable bed.

"It's cold out there Tatiana..." Lucie called softly from her table, looking up from her coffee, "There are alot of jackets in the utility room back there."

Tatiana smiled at Lucie lightly. She took her dishes over to a pukey green colored bin on the buffet where other dirty dishes were and she set them in there and then began the short trek to the utility room, which had a large, tan painted metal door guarding it.

"Tati!" Bryanne called after her from the little nook of the resturant.

"Yeah?" Tatiana asked, turning back, rocking on her heels. Bryanne had one of her socked feet, pink socks to be exact, on the table and she was grinning, the mischevious chesire cat grin of hers.

"Let's go swimming. Later."

Tatiana giggled softly.

"Okay, Bry," She replied. Tatiana turned around and walked towards the tan metal door, hands in the back pockets of her jeans. She shook herself lightly to herself. Bryanne was a handful.

She found it horribly strange to be doing recreational things like that, swimming. It seemed very strange, abnormal, even though swimming is a natural thing and people do it everyday. Why was it strange now? _Well...people once did it._

The utility room was cold and empty, with work benches and wracks full of tools, nails, bolts, screws, and many more items. There were cardboard boxes in the room, cut up, and sheets of metal too. The room smelt faintly of metal and the smell almost reminded her of the cologne her Grandpa used to wear. There were coats hanging on the wall, held up by hooks. Tatiana grabbed a coat off one of the hooks and tried it on.

It was a bit large on her, but warm. It was made of a shiny dark blue material and had ornage stripes on the arms, with a C on the breast. a Chicago Bears jacket. It also smelled strongly of the cologney smell of the entire room. She felt in the pockets are felt a pack of ciggerettes in the inside pocket of the coat and also a lighter. In another pocket there was a stray red cap, maybe something that went on one of the tubes of gorilla glue, oils, and grease in the room. Tatiana straightened it out on her shoulders and smiled lightly to herself.

As she went to the elevator and pressed the top floor button on the panal. She felt somehow excited to be shooting the zombies that were outside the building. She would get them. No one would be getting in this building, her home and the home of her friends, if they didn't want them there. Not while she was on watch. She an almost burning sensation in her chest, an angry burning mad sensation. She clenched her fists, balled up in the warm, silky pockets of her coat.

When the elevator doors slid open, it revealed a short, dim hallway that led over to another tan colored metal door. She crossed the short hall, fists clenching and unclenching in her pockets, her shoes clacking and clapping against the dirty, dim tiles of the hall, an empty sound echoing back to her ears.

Tatiana opened the metal door and was met by a rush of cold, harsh autumn air and the sting of the drizzle.

She spotted Alex standing close to the edge of the building, one of his legs on top of the edge, a gun raised to eye level. He was concentrated on the scene below on the street.

Tatiana walked over to him, bringing her arms from her pockets to cross over her chest. She placed her hand softly on his shoulder and she felt him jump lightly. He glanced at her, squinting from the drizzle slapping against him and the wind hitting him.

Alex pointed to the rifle leaned up against the edge of the building for her and she grabbed it, her hands shaking slightly as she lifted it up to eye level. She mocked shooting it at the ground and a slight smirk crossed over Alex's thin lips. She took her spot next to him on the edge of the building and she glanced down.

There were still zombies surrounding the little SUV on the cement below. The SUV was by no means little, but seemed so tiny from up above. Usually, Tatiana hated heights besides going on roller coasters with her dad at Six Flags. The hungry cries of the damned were still audible over the sound of the moaning wind that blasted in her ears. She hated it. The sounds haunted her dreams at night.

"Keep on, Wind," She said softly to herself, morely mouthed. She took aim at one of the zombies, scratching at the white brick of the buidling. Faint dark red blood stuck to the building, like a child finger painting on the newly painted white walls of his room. She could faintly make out the slick white of the monsters finger bones. She aimed, watching it through the scope on her rifle, and fired.

Gray brain matter splattered the building and it fell to its knees, and then to its side on the soggy ground.


	13. I'm Just A Kid And Life Is A Nightmare

**I'm Just A Kid And Life Is A Nightmare**

"Cannon baaaaaaaaaaall!" Bryanne screamed, her voice shrill. She sprinted from the back of the pool hall and caterpaulted herself into the clear blue water, even though Maria had screamed at her not too becuase she thought she would slip and fall and bust her head open. Water splashed everything in sight. Tatiana laughed from where she sat, on one of the cold lounge chairs in the pool hall, wrapped in one of the long white towels. Her swim suit was a light blue colored halter swim top and a matching side tie bottoms. The suit was a little big on her, but it fit, so she was happy.

Antoinette was lounging on a red colored blow up raft in the middle of the pool, wearing a pink and white polka dotted two piece suit and wearing a pair of dark aviator glasses that she had found in the front desk in one of the drawers. She had mixed herself a martini, a mix of apple juice and vodka, and she had planted herself onto the raft. Tatiana smirked at her as she was splashed by Bryanne and how a bit of her martini spilled from the cocktail glass.

"Hey! Watch it!" She said, splashing water on her to wash off the sticky alcohol off of her. She settled back into the raft and adjusted her glasses as Byranne laughed at her. She swam next to Maria, who was catching her breath after doing a few laps.

"You're fast!" Bryanne said to her. Maria brushed a thick strand of wet hair out of her face and smiled, giggling too. She wore a too big black one piece suit that she had pinned in the back. Somehow, she pulled it off and made it look good looking and almost like something a model would wear.

"I used to go to the YMCA everyday. Laps, exercise bike, dancing, you name it," She said, smiling. She turned around and said, "Tatiana! Get your butt in this pool."

Tatiana grinned to herself and stood up.

The pool hall was warm and steamy, with mist rising off the pool and the hot tub. The walls were made with wood and the floor was light blue tiles. There were a couple of white circular tables in the room with matching chairs and a few lounge chairs. There was also a sauna, which Tatiana planned to sit in for a good half hour.

There were windows in the room, steamed up of course and they showed off a little patio area that people could lounge out on when it was summer. Suprisingly, there were no zombies there.

The patio was a bit off the ground and had a black metal railing on it, but she guessed the zombies could get up there if they tried hard enough. It made goosebumps rise on her pale skin. They all decided they would board up the windows later, along with the front doors of the hotel.

Maria had found the keys to the vending machines in the room, a soda machine and a snack machine, and had opened them up for them and they were having a regular old party. They had set up stacks of towels on the tables and had got some more vodka and apple juice for Antoinette and they were relaxing.

Tatiana walked over to the pool and dipped her toes in. The water was slightly warm, like bath water. She walked over to the deep end as Maria began another set of laps and Bryanne got out of the water to grab a pack of M&Ms and a diet coke from the vending machines. Antoinette didn't move from her raft, but Tati could see her eyes watching them through the sunglasses.

She took a deep breath and dived into the water.

The water hugged her body and she loved the feeling. She bounced off the tile bottom of the pool and let herself slowly float to the top.

Tatiana had always loved the water. She couldn't get enough of it.

She liked how her golden brown hair floated on top of the water and around her like a halo while she stood at the bottom and when she floated on her back. She liked to just lay in the middle of the pool on her back to feel the water holding her up. Tatiana opened her eyes under the water, even though it stinged. She hated to wear goggles. She watched the blurry blue-green water around her and her hair floating around her. It was a whole diffrent world, peaceful too.

She came back to "the real world" and sucked in the misty warm air and she watched as Bryanne poured the entire contents of the brown colored M&M bag into her mouth and watched Antoinette actually get into the water. She crossed over into the shallow end and got out of the pool to mix herself another martini.

Maria was also getting out of the pool to snag a bottle of water from the open vending machine. Her body was sleek with water and sweat.

Tatiana flipped onto her back, with her hair halo around her and the water filling her ears. It was her only little world, Tatiana's World.

She closed her eyes and tried to think straight. Think of something. She just felt werid and out of place. Homesick.

She was awoken from her thoughts when she was smacked right in the face by a beach ball.

She jumped in the water and stood up, bewildered. "What was that?"

Bryanne ran over to the table where the rainbow colored ball was stuck under and she giggled. "Marco polo anyone? Water volleyball?"

"Oh! I want to play!" Maria squeed from where she was. She set her water down on a table and grabbed Antoinette by the arm, who was swishing her drink int the cocktail glass. "You are playing too."

"Nooo...nooo. Not me. Count me out," Antoinette said. Bryanne ran over and grabbed her other arm and pushed her into the pool, despite the high pitched screams she let out. They pushed her into the water and her Aviator glasses went flying to the tile.

Bryanne threw her the beach ball and said, "You're on my team!"

Tatiana smiled to herself and to everyone else. "I don't want to brag...but I'm a good volleyball player. Prepare to lose."

Tatiana was putting her newly shampooed and conditioned hair into a ponytail as the elevator doors opened on the lobby. It was maybe 5 now and through the cracks of the barrier made of furniture in front of the doors, she could see bits and pieces of dark blue dusky sky. She was dressed in turquoise fleece capri pants, a white wife beater, a grey zip up sweater, and the white tennis shoes from this morrning.

The resturant, or dining room as Antoinette had begun to call it, was warm and smelled of cooking food. Bryanne, Lleyton, Aiden, and Alex were sitting at one of the circular tables, holding up playing cards and using pretzils and old stale cookies as playing chips. Tatiana, personally, didn't know how to play any card games. Her grandma, Olivia, had tried to teach her, but she never caught on. She wasn't even good at Go Fish!

Bryanne's pouty face was distorted in a smirky but concentrated poker face. She held her cards carefully so none of the others could try taking a peek at them, even Tatiana. She had the most chips as well and Aiden had the least. Tatiana smiled as she walked by and she let herself into the kitchen.

Rosita was hunched over one of the silver colored working counters in the kitchen, a big slicing knife in her hand. She was slicing raw chicken into tiny, bite sized pieces. There were also sticks of carrots, celery, and onion next to her, waiting to be chopped up.

Rosita had her hair tied in a high ponytail insted of her usual braid and she was wearing a pink and black track suit, but had a spotty and too big for her apron. She glanced up as she heard the double doors swing together and she smiled.

"Oh, hi there!" She said, sounding winded and suprised, "Dinner won't be ready for a while ye-"

"Please? Let me help? I'm an alright cook, I always helped my Grandma and Dad cook...I even took a home ec. class in high school!" Tatiana said, grining wildly. Rosita raised her thick eyebrows at her and Tatiana placed her hands together as if she was praying.

Everyone else was upstairs in their rooms, napping or relaxing and watching the movies that Bryanne had picked out for the TVs to play. There were no channels to really choose from, unless you wanted to watch the emergency broadcast system or grey and white static. She had picked out a few musicals, Grease 1 and 2, My Fair Lady. There were limited tapes to choose from, very old ones in fact. Maria and Antoinette both had guard duty up on the roof. Jeff was on his way down to guard the front doors. And there were the ones playing poker. She wanted to help out Rosita. Rosita now called the kitchen her home and she was in charge of it.

"Okay," Rosita said, smiling at her again, "There are some aprons on the hooks in the closet there."

Tatiana went to the closet and tried to find the smallest apron there. It was stained with some type of gravy and sauce and it was faded.

"Your first task," Rosita said, smiling, "Is to chop the celery and carrots and onions into tiny pieces."

"Yes, Ma'am!" Tatiana said, smiling lightly as she found a clean slicing knife from one of the drawers. She carefully washed the veggies under warm tap water, and she was thankful the lights were on and the water was running. She always had tried in the past to enjoy and not take these luxuries for granted. But she always failed miserably.

She began slicing the celery, careful. As Rosita sliced the chicken into bite sized pieces and once in a while plopped them into the large pot of water on the stove, Tatiana sliced her veggies, being as professional as she could be. After chopping the veggies, she started to cook the noodles. They were making chicken noodle soup.

"What is the one thing you miss most about life...before this...happened?" Rosita asked, softly as she sprayed down the counter with disinfectant to get the germs of the raw chicken off of it.

Tatiana frowned. This was her life now. She didn't want to go back and think of all the memories. She tried to, she tried hard, but still memories slipped through her mental barrier and she didn't mind. But she didn't want to think about it anymore.

"My dad," She said, her voice sounded sure and almost far away to her.

She didn't want to think about all the good times.

How in the summer, her Dad would turn the A/C in his truck so high she would get goosebumps and shiver. How her Dad always loved to cook and loved to watch the food channels and how he wanted to go to a culinary school, but he was too busy with being the D.A to try it. How he would watch his favorite movies with her, an old western movie and a movie about a chain gang and a mafia movie, over and over again. How he and her would watch football together and cheer for their favorite team together.

"I miss my baby girls."

Tatiana glanced up to the pin board, to a picture of two little girls in a large bath tub filled to the rim with bubbles. They had matching thick black hair, just like Rosita and eyes that almost looked like Jimmy's or maybe a relative of Jimmy's. She felt tears prick at her eyes, for Amber and Ashley and for her Dad.

"Cheesecake for desert?" Rosita said, lifting up her head from the cupboard she was sifting through. She had a pack of generic oreos in her arms, along with graham crackers, a stick of butter, and a large pack of sugar. Her eyes were full of tears and her face was pale and white, despite her tan skin.

"Let me get those," Tatiana said softly, pity almost dripping from her voice. But in that mix of soft pity, there was understanding. She pulled the cookies and crackers from the Spanish woman's arms and set them on the freshly cleaned counter top. Rosita set the rest down and she held herself up against the table with her hands. She sighed heavily and said, "This an old recipe from Jimmy's grandma. Chocolate cheesecake."

"The ingridients?" Tatiana asked, sounding confused and unsure. She saw a tear plop down onto the metal table.

"Cream cheese?" Rosita asked, her voice sounding strained and crackly.

Tatiana could feel the tears pricking terribly at her eyes but she couldn't let the tears fall. She felt confused and scared, nervous. She didn't know what to do. She felt that Rosita might get mad if she tried to comfort her. She crossed the kitchen to the large silver colored refridgorator's, one of three. There were also 3 freezers.

She searched through the fridges and finally she found some small boxes of creamcheese. She pulled two boxes out of the fridge and almost ran to the table to set them next to the other, dry ingridients.

"And?" Tatiana asked, her tone freightened.

"Chocolate," Rosita said. There was a small puddle of tears on the counter top.

Tatiana crossed to the cupboards and found packets of baking semi-sweet chocolate. She set that next to the other ingridients.

The other ingridients were vanilla, cocoa powder, eggs, sour cream, and more chocolate. Rosita lifted her head up finally, her cheeks flushed red but still pale and her eyes looked slightly swollen. She wiped them and looked around, nervously, at Tatiana.

"Let's get cooking," She said, barely above a whisper. And she put a big fake smile on her plump lips.

* * *

Rosita poured the soup into the buffet bins and Tatiana set up the bowls, soup spoons, and crackers on a small shelf on the table. The cheesecake was cooling in the ice box in the back, waiting for hungry mouths and forks to eat it.

Rosita and Tati had been quiet making the cheescake together, but somehow, she felt as if she was Rosita's daughter and she was her mother and they were at home, baking in the kitchen on a sunny afternoon. But in reality, it was a married woman whose real children were probally dead and a teenager whose parents and all living relatives were probally dead and it was a dreary fall night and they were trapped in a lavish, but almost scary hotel. In the back of her mind, the hotel reminded her of the movie 'The Shining.'

"I think we did good, huh?" Rosita said, standing back and looking over the food. Tatiana straightened the bowl of crackers and stood back with her, her fists on her hips.

"You bet we did." She said, and Tatiana hugged Rosita. Rosita seemed shocked at first, but then wrapped her arms around her and they stood like that for a minute before pulling away.

"I bet it's delicious!" Antoinette said, jogging in the room and rubbing her hands together. Her nose was bright red and so was her cheeks and her hair was windswept and straggley. Maria was the same way, shivering and flushed from the cold.

"Get your butts over here and get some warm soup, then!" Rosita said, grinning at them as she crossed her arms over her chest. They tossed their jackets on the floor and ran to grab their bowls, like little girls comming in from making snow men and snow angels on snow days awaiting the homemade chicken soup that their mothers had made them.

"Dish up, little gal," Rosita said, smiling merrily at Tatiana, "I'll call the others down."

Tatiana nodded, a hint of a smile on her lips, and she headed towards the buffet to dish out the soup into one of the tan colored bowls. The yellow colored broth and colorful noodles and veggies looked delicious, to die for. As she sat down with Antoinette and Maria, Bryanne and the other poker players began to wrap the game up and dish themselves up. Bryanne had the most stale snacks and she was smiling sweet and innocently at the other players.

"She cheats," Alex whispered as he sat down next to her with a bowl of soup, mostly crackers. Tatiana laughed as Bryanne called out from the buffet, "Hey there! I heard that!"

From the sound of silverware clinking together and slurp of soup, Tatiana swore she heard something breaking. Like glass. As she stopped talking, moving and breathing, she could faintly hear the moans and groans of the flesh hungry beasts outside. And then more breaking, a slow cracking.

"Listen. Listen. Do you hear that?" Tatiana said, her voice small. Maria and Antoinette raised their eyebrows at the same time and quieted down, listening carefully.

They all jumped as they heard a loud smack against the front glass windows and then a crunch.

More smacking.

The sound of the zombies beating on the glass with their fists.

"What the fu-" Antoinette began to say. And then they heard the quiet trickle of glass breaking. Tatiana's eyebrows rose and she felt her heart beating against her rib cage as she ran towards the front desk for one of the rifles stored down there for the guards, Alex with her, grabbing the other rifle. Maria and Antoinette ran towards the utility room. They had talked of reinforcing the front doors.

The time had come.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hehe! This was fun to write! I thought there should be a more "fun" chapter in here somewhere, so I hoped you enjoyed it! 

Any tips? Ideas? Anything you want to see in the upcomming chapters? Or do you just want to tell me how sucky this story is?

Go on ahead! Tell me in a review! .


	14. Trying To Figure Out This Life

**Trying To Figure Out This Life**

Antoinette sprinted down the hall, Maria at her side and she almost would have rammed into the door with her shoulder if Maria didn't open it. Her mind was spinning and she felt dizzy. The zombies were going to break into her new home and they were going to kill her new friends. No! She wouldn't let that happen.

"Tatiana said she saw some sheet metal in here earlier. Grab it and i'll get some tools," Maria said, breathlessly. Antoinette barely nodded and she scrambled around the metallic smelling room. She started to hear the burst of gunfire from down the hall and she began to shake violently. She heard more smashing and crashing of glass and it made her shake even more and it made it hard to lift up the almost tin like sheets of metal.

This wasn't like her. She just didn't freeze up and she never really felt scared.

She had sat in that police station for a whole night by herself. Scared to death, she was, but she lived it out, she suffered just as much as anyone else did. And she survived didn't she, but why was she acting like this now? She glanced towards Maria who was pulling hammers and nails and the like from the racks of tools. The sheets of metal were thin, but she knew they had to do the trick.

She gathered up some of the sheets, they were quite wide but not very heavy, and she and Maria sprinted out the door as fast as they could with the tools and metal in their arms. Tatiana was nervously looking back at them as Alex shot any zombie that came into view. Jeff and Scott, with Rosita in tow, came sprinting out of the elevator.

"What happened!?" Jeff cried, as he took most of the metal out of Antoinette's arms and continued to run towards the front doors. Some of the potted plants had smashed to the ground and the dirt and bits of tannish-red painted glass was everywhere, scattered with the front door glass. Antoinette ran to catch up with Jeff and she set the metal down. Maria handed everyone a hammer besides Tatiana and Alex and set down the big coffee can full of rusty nails.

"Go! Now! We can't let them get in!" Jeff growled. Antoinette knew that he would never let anythign happen to this hotel and he would never let anything happen to anyone in it. Antoinette grabbed the hammer from Maria and she began to help shove the leather lounge couches out of the way of the door. Bryanne was looking around nervously, looking out of place with the hammer in her hands. But, the rifle also looked out of placed in Tatiana's hands.

The bloody, grimy hands and arms of the zombies poked at her and she let back a scream and gag. She felt her eyes widen and her stomach turn as one of the bloody, wrinkley feeling fingers brushed across her forehead and down her cheek. And then she felt a burst of air by the side of her face and the arm dropped back. She shivered. Scott and Bryanne, finding something to do, pushed the first sheet of metal against the crowd of desperate arms and fingers and hands.

Antoinette used all of her strength to push the metal against the door frame and she was sure everyone else was, but they were still getting pushed back. Antoinette used her back to push against it and they seemed to be okay.

"Now! Start hammering!" Jeff commanded. Antoinette grabbed a handful of the nails, a few poking her in the palm, and she set them in place. The hoard of zombies pushed against the metal, jarring it, put she pushed against the metal with her body and set the nail up and she began to beat against it like mad. She didn't even cry out when she slammed her thumb with the hammer, she was too deep in concentration.

"I think they have a nail gun back there..." Rosita said breathlessly, as she began to hammer another nail.

"Maybe even two!" Scott said, slamming a nail in place and grabbing another.

"Go and check, Tati! Now!" Antoinette screamed, missing her third nail and smashing her hammer into the metal. Jeff and Scott set up another sheet of metal as the young blonde sprinted down the hall. Antoinette grabbed another nail from her palm and set it against the metal as she smacked her hammer against it. She glanced towards Maria, her black hair falling out of the messy bun, the look of concentration in her eyes mixed with a bit of fear.

Tatiana ran back to them, with three nail guns in hands. She handed one to Antoinette, one to Jeff, and one to Scott. The nail gun was silver, almost like a stapler gun, and Antoinette dropped the hammer to the ground and she pressed the mouth of the gun to the metal and pulled the "trigger." The nail pushed into the metal with ease and she moved on.

They reinforced the front doors with two more sheets of metal and then moved on to the windows, which the zombies also started smashing at.

When they got done, it was around ten at night and the soup Rosita had made was cold and the cheesecake she and Tati had made was as hard as ice, for it had been abandoned in the freezer. Everyone, tired and dripping with sweat from work, decided to settle for sandwiches insted, and they would eat the soup the next day insted.

Antoinette fell into bed when she got there, tired, and her thumb was throbbing, and she was scaredly looking around in the dark. She could imagine a zombie, standing near the door, swaying and standing there, eying her and waiting. She jumped out of bed, terrified from the shadows and she turned on the lamp on the nightstand by her bed.

As a child, she had always been like this.

She would sit in bed, thinking of all the monsters possible that could be hiding in the dark, just waiting to get her. She kicked the covers off of her body and she walked towards the balcony in her room and she slid open the door. Warm but still cold air hit her. She liked the weather here, sometimes cold and sometimes warm. Antoinette was dressed in a baggy white button up shirt she had found in the staff room here and shorts and her wavy hair was pulled into a loose, messy ponytail. She sat down on one of the white plastic lounge chairs on the balcony and she wrapped her arms around herself.

She watched the grey clouds mesh with the dark blueish-black sky. She could still hear moans from the reamaining zombies below and she could hear them banging their fists against the new metal barrier that kept them out and kept the living safe. She sighed quietly to herself and closed her eyes as she felt slight goosebumps rise on her legs.

She couldn't even think straight. She didn't even know what to think of. She only thought of suriving lately, nothing else, nothing less. She imagined that Raven Heights was just a regular vacation town like it used to be.

Antoinette would wear a sundress and flip flops with a big pair of matching sunglasses and she would walk arm in arm with her new best friend Maria and they would shop the long strip on main street in town and go out to a bar to eat and watch a band preform. Maybe they would go swimming too. Oh, and definately, they would meet some cute guys.

"Can't forget about the cute guys," Antoinette said tiredly to herself.

And she would even take a river tour on one of the duck shaped boats they had, even though it might be pretty boring.

All the thinking led her to slowly drift off to sleep on the lounge chair, the strange almost springy wind blowing softly at her.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the short chapter! eee!!

But I hope you enjoyed and I hope you'll review and tell me what you think. Not too exciting...but, still good, right?


	15. It's This Damn Cold Night

**It's This Damn Cold Night**

Tatiana pulled on the thick black hoodie she had brought up with her on the roof and she sighed to herself. Alex brought the soda he had been drinking for the past hour, a coke which was probally almost stale by now, to his lips and he took a long sip. They sat in lounge chairs taken from the extra balconies and had set up a little table between them. On the table was a few cans of soda, coke and pepsi, bags of candy, and a few extra magazines for the rifle.

It had been a week since the zombies had almost broken in. Since then, nothing truely eventful had happened. Just the same old thing, everyday. They had begun to create plans to go to the Super Walmart in the city, but first, they would go to the gun store. It was all still in the making, but they would be doing it soon. Tatiana actually found herself excited.

She wanted to get some new clothes for herself and of course, some new dvds and tapes for the TVs in the hotel. And some other goodies. She knew she shouldn't have that on her mind, only what was truely needed, but she couldn't help it. Hey, she was a teenager. A girl teenager. What girl teenager ever had anything but shopping on her mind? Even in this kind of world with zombies crawling around and who knows what else.

"Next question," Tatiana asked quietly. Alex turned to her and smiled and then put a mock look of concentration on his face.

The weather was slightly cold again, but still warm enough to not wear a jacket. The night sky was perfect, with a half moon shining in the sky.

"Vanilla or chocolate?"

"You asked that one already."

"Well...," Alex said, laughing, "I forgot!"

"Okay, okay," Tatiana said, "Vanilla of course. But chocolate is still pretty good."

They were quiet for a minute and Tatiana enjoyed the night time breeze that hit her face. The air still smelt stale and like blood, but she still concidered it fresh air. She could hear the moans of the zombies below, but it didn't reall seem to scare her too much. She was on the roof of a 7 story hotel, what could they possibly do to hurt her now? Besides, well, maybe finding some way to break into the hotel or magically learning how to fly.

Tatiana stood up with her rifle strung around her shoulders and she walked towards the edge. She slowly watched a woman zombie below, the woman was just standing and watching them. It scared her slightly, so she raised her gun to eye level and shot the woman right between the eyes. She had taken up guard duty everyday this week to get good target practice and she definately saw she was getting better. Her dad had tried to teach her once but that was when she thought nothing was ever going to happen to her. And it was only once, what good what it have done her anyways?

She just shook her head and glanced around at the other zombies roaming around. There were a few trickling out from the alleys and from between buildings.

"They just don't stop comming, do they?" Tatiana said softly to Alex. She turned to him and tried to smile goofily, but it seemed so out of place to her now. He didn't answer and she turned back to watch the creatures on the street below. She started to watch another zombie, an old man it seemed, when something bright flashed across her face. It was gone for a second but then back.

"What the..." Tatiana began and she squinted in the distance. She saw a figure on a roof top maybe a block or so away, a small figure. The figure was holding a flash light and the person flashed it across her face again.

Alex stood up and came next to her and the light flashed across his face too. "Someone is alive..."

"Binoculars, give them to me," Tatiana asked quickly. He grabbed the binoculars off their small table and handed them to her and she brought them up to her eyes. It was hard to see in the dark, but she could make out what seemed to be an old woman. The woman waved to them and Tatiana brought her hand up to wave back. She brought the binoculars down from her face and said, "We have to tell the others."

"How do we know she's not infected?" Jeff said, crossing his arms over his chest, looking strong and looking more scary than he already did. It didn't help that he was more that 6'4.

"I don't know. She would have changed by now if she was bitten," Tatiana said, "And it's an old woman. We can't just let her die there without trying to save her, Jeff."

His gaze faltered and his features seemed to go deep into concentration.

"Come on Jeff. We have to get her," Rosita said, pleading. She was wearing her nightgown but still looked just as fierce.

"Okay, okay." He said. Everyone gave a slight cheer but he silenced them all by raising his large hand.

"We should only have a few people going. Antoinette, Maria, Alex, and myself will go," He continued. Tatiana felt a sick feeling in her stomach but also felt hope. Everyone going on the rescue mission headed back to their rooms and began to gear up while the others could only sit and wait. Tatiana went back to her room and sat on her bed, Indian style and she thought. She wanted to go along with the others, but she knew the strict and almost father like Jeff would definately say no.

She felt like she was doing nothing if she just sat around and did nothing, even though it was very late at night. She stood up from her bed, which was a mess for she had just washed her comforter and bed sheets earlier and she began to make the bed. It wasn't anything that could help anyone in the hotel, but it would make her feel better.

She made the bed and made sure there were absolutely no crinkles in the bed spread and then she worked on the paintings hanging on the walls. She moved the Paris skyline painting from its place near her mini fridge and microwave and placed it above her bed. Tatiana had always wanted to go to Paris. She was a little bit French herself and it had always been a dream. She remember trying to ask her dad to maybe take her there someday.

But they never got the chance to plan it out.

Somewhere between moving her clothes from Bryanne's sisters bag to the dresser and rearranging the few shoes she had near the door of the room, she heard the SUV in the parking lot start up and the sound of gunfire breaking through the quiet night air. She tried to ignore it.

When she was finished, Tatiana pulled a diet coke out of her mini fridge and took a deep sip. The room didn't look too much diffrent for most of the furniture looked fine where it was and the bed was far too heavy, but she thought she spruced it up a bit. _When we go to WalMart I need to get some things for this dump _she thought. She smiled to herself and she pushed herself on the bed more, propped up on her pillows, and she grabbed the channel changer and flicked on the TV.

The movie playing was an old western and she thought she recognized one of the lead actors as John Wayne. She wasn't too into westerns, but she sat and watched it for a few minutes before jumping out of bed to head to her balcony.

She was trying to shake off the boredom that was trying to overtake her. If she let the boredom take control of her, she would begin to worry. And she didn't want to worry because she knew that nothing was going to happen. But Tatiana just let herself keep thinking it.

Down below on the street, she could see a few zombies heading away from the hotel. She knew they were going to try and go after the SUV. She look across the dark skyline and didn't see much happening near the building she had seen the old woman on. Tatiana rubbed her hands together nervously and she closed her eyes as the air, colder now than before, hit her face lightly and she opened them only to watch the headlights shining from an alley near the building.

She wished she could have went on this mission, just to keep the boredom away. "Wow. The chance of being killed almost seems fun now."

Tatiana hated talking to herself and she knew she should just go knock on Bryanne's door, but Bryanne was most likely sleeping. She seemed so young at heart, like a child who didn't understand what was going on and she didn't want to know what was going on. That was what she admired about her friend. She couldn't just not think about what was going on in the outside world. It was all around her mind and it was in her dreams.

She believed it was inevitable to think about.

When she was bored like this at home, she would take her Mp3 player and would walk around the neighboorhood and maybe go around the nearby park. Sometimes, she would even find herself swinging on the swings in the park for hours, at least until it was almost dark outside. She wished she could do that now, but for one, she had no Mp3 player with her and two, if she even went outside a hoard of zombies would attack and eat her alive.

It wasn't such a pleasant thought.

Her Mp3 player is something she wished she could have brought with her.

She brought her eyes back to the headlights in the alley and she could see them moving. Tatiana saw the dark blue SUV move through the alley and she saw it ram a fat zombie in a red jogging suit and she watched it fly over the windsheild and over the car and she watched the SUV drive down the street and to the hotel. She walked over to her bathroom and looked at her reflection in the mirror. She combed her hair with her brush on the sink and brought her hair into a ponytail. Then she headed out of her room and to the lobby below to greet the new commer.


	16. Ragged Old Flag

**Ragged Old Flag**

Bryanne handed the woman a green cup filled with steaming hot coffee and to the little boy, she handed him a brown colored cup with hot chocolate in it. The woman gratefully took the cup of coffee in her frail, veiny hands and took a long sip. The boy looked scared and helpless, but he still drank down the hot chocolate in what seemed like 3 long sips.

The old woman was frail looking and quite short, maybe 5'4 or so and she looked almost childish, but Bryanne knew she was a strong woman. She could feel it. The woman, named Amelie, was mostly french and had almost silverish hair that was slightly curly and ragged and she had almost ocean blue eyes. She wore a pair of jeans and a black longsleeved shirt. The little boy look a bit like her, with the same eyes as her. He had light, mousey brown hair insted of silver. He wore a power rangers shirt which Bryanne thought was very cute and jeans and shoes that also had power rangers on them.

"How long have you been in that resturant?" Rosita asked softly while she put one of the cardboard boxes full of food from the resuturant. When she was done stacking the boxes, three in all, Rosita pulled up a chair next to Amelie.

"I can't even remember...I've lost track of the days," Amelie said, quietly. Her voice was slightly musical and had a slight tint of a french accent. Bryanne liked to listen to her voice. "Ever since this epidemic has started. Thats what the news called it, an epidemic."

"I'm so sorry," Rosita said, placing her tan, strong hand on top of the old woman's. Amelie looked to Rosita and nodded. "Thankg god me and Dylan here were in that resturant. Thank the good lord. We were going out to breakfast early that day, Dylan's mama worked third shift and would be getting off soon to meet us. We got to the resturant and everything was fine."

Amelie paused to take a long sip of her coffee. She set down the empty mug on the table and Bryanne got up to go refill it. Her parents had always taught her to take care of the elderly and to always take care of their every need. She winced when she thought of her own grandparents. She was was somehow at peace to know that they had died years ago. She didn't want them to have to suffer at all. They were so sweet...

"We ordered and everything was fine. Then outside, a big car pile up happened and alot of people ran out of the resturant to see what they could do to help. And then I saw one of those things climbing from the broken windsheilds and windows. I knew they weren't one of us anymore. They started attacking the crowd that had gathered," Amelie explained. Her voice cracked a little, but she didn't stop.

"A cook, a big guy, locked the doors and told us we couldn't leave. He called the cops, the fire department, everything. Busy. All busy. We sat there, waiting for help. But none came. Those damn things were banging on the windows and it was just bad. We stayed over night and we were lucky none of those things broke in. Then the cook...he said he was going to get help. Of course, he didn't come back."

Amelie took the little boy's hand and held it in her fragile one.

"I kept us fed with the food from the resturant. I didn't think of what would happen if they broke in, I just kept thinking of someone, the army or national guard, comming to save us. And I prayed. Little Dylan prayed. And then here you all were, our saviors," She concluded. She didn't look shaken at all re-telling it, but Bryanne felt her true feelings. Rosita had tears streaming down her face and she brought a hand to her mouth and gave the little woman a tight hug.

"I'm sorry," Rosita told her, "I'm sorry we couldn't have helped you sooner."

"Don't be, just be glad that you found us finally," Amelie said, nodding.

Tatiana came from behind her and Bryanne smiled grimly at her. Tatiana was her best friend in the hotel and she couldn't imagine being without her. She couldn't imagine being without someone to tell her true feelings to. Bryanne remembered on the first night they arrived and she had broken down in front of her. She wouldn't let anyone else know her secrets and past but Tatiana. Tatiana grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

"Girls," Amelie said, turning to them, "Would you be so kind as to take Dylan somewhere? Play a game with him or something? He's been through so much..."

"Of course!" Bryanne chimed in merrily, "We'd love to!"

Bryanne turned to Dylan and the little boy stuck his chin out proudly. She guessed he was maybe 8 or so and she was glad he wouldn't be the type to hide around his mother's skirt or hide away and not talk to anyone he didn't know. He wanted to show them all he was a brave little boy who didn't get scared at all.

"Hi, Dylan," Bryanne said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "My name is Bryanne and this is Tatiana. Do you want to go swimming with us?"

Dylan looked from Bryanne to Tatiana and then to his Grandma. Amelie nodded to him with a big smile on her face and Dylan turned to them.

"We promise it will be very fun!" Tatiana said, smiling goofily at him. The little boy lit up and quietly said, "Okay."

He hopped off his stool and Bryanne took his little hand. His hand was so tiny compared to hers. She used to babysit alot and she was used to trying to be very nice and pleasing to the children she took care of. Tatiana took his other hand and they began to head towards the elevators to find the child something to wear to swim in.

Swimming with Dylan was definately fun. They used a pair of shorts as swimming trunks and gave him a tank top to wear over it and he was overly joyed. He seemed to be a little offset by the metal sheets covering the windows in the room, but he was so excited to be going swimming that he didn't say anything. He ran from the door leading into the swimming pool area and dived into the water expertly.

"You're so good, Dylan! I think you're even better than me!" She had said to him, laughing.

He was such a good little kid and so energetic. Bryanne thought it was easy to picture him scared and alone in that resturant. But she shook all of those thoughts away and had a cannon ball and diving contest with him.

After an hour of swimming, comparing dives and tricks, doing laps, and eating candy from the vending machines and drinking drinks (juice for Dylan, of course) everyone was very exhausted. Dylan fell alsleep in Bryanne's arms and Tatiana went to get changed and Bryanne took Dylan to room 303, his new home with his grandma.

Amelie awnsered the door and smiled, the wrinkles in her faces crinkled together from her grin and it made her look so much older but Bryanne actually thought she looked like a child. Anyone would mistake her for a child if she didn't have the wrinkles that come with old age. "You're such a sweet girl. Thank you for taking him swimming. I know he must have loved it."

"Not a problem," Bryanne said, walking into the room and setting the boy on the bed. She set his clothes down next to him and said, "I will wash these in the morrning for you."

"No, no," Amelie said, placing a soft hand on her shoulder, "You've done enough for me."

"It's okay," Bryanne said, looking over the old woman's face. She seemed very wise and she seemed like the type of person Bryanne would see at the community center in her town. The community center was a place where the elderly would come together on weekends to play chess, checkers, and other things. Sometimes, they'd even have birthday parties there too. Bryanne used to like to help out there alot. She liked to make the elderly people smile.

"I can't imagine what you've been through," Bryanne started, clasping her hands together by her chest, "But I don't...I don't want you to have to go through that again. I want life here for you to be...well, the best I can make it for you. Becuase you deserve it. We all do."

Amelie narrowed her eyes slightly at her, trying to figure her out, but she ended up with her eyes glassy with tears and he face kind. She put her arms around Bryanne, the old woman only came up to her chest, and she whispered, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Bryanne said. Amelie let go and patted Bryanne on the shoulder.

"I'm glad there are still good people like you out in this new world we're living in," Amelie said as she escorted Bryanne to the door.

Bryanne looked around at the empty hotel room. It wasn't empty, there was the couches in the room, the beds, the nook area, the tv, and the paintings. But it didn't seem like Amelie. She could imagine Amelie's house smelling like something baking or maybe some type of italian food or french food. She could imagine many black and white pictures on the surfaces in the room and knick knacks all around, and music playing. Classical dancing music with maybe a french singer wailing in the backround. The mental picture seemed warm.

"Thank you," Amelie said, opening the door for her. Bryanne stepped out and she opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She closed her mouth and simply nodded and said, "Good night."

"Good night," Amelie replied and she shut the door softly. Bryanne turned around and sighed and wrapped her damp towel around her tighter. She ran to her room, for chills were creeping up on her skin and she hated that. She couldn't get her mind off the old woman.

As she laid in bed, her clock read 3 am which was a horrible time to be getting into bed, with her arms crossed behind her head she pictured again about what Amelie's house would be like. She couldn't imagine her grandparents living her in this hotel. It was nice, but she couldn't picture any elderly person in a world with crazy cannibals running around trying to kill anyone in sight.

She didn't like it at all and she didn't think this world was a place for elderly people. _Hey, this world isn't the place for any of us. _She wanted to make life here in this shit hole livable for Amelie and her little grandson Dylan, who happened to be 7. She would do anything in her power to make it livable here for them and for everyone else here.

Bryanne knew that everyone here, even her best friend Tati, thought that she was childish and was ignoring the real problem in the world. But that wasn't true. She tried to watch them everytime she was on guard duty, which was maybe twice a week because everyone thought she didn't want to be there and that she didn't look right with a big rifle in her hands, and she tried to figure them out. But she couldn't. She even had little notepads filled with notes on the damn creatures. If she couldn't study them from the roof, she would study them from the balcony in her room.

The creatures who haunted her dreams.

She wanted to figure out why they were here and how you could permanently get rid of them. Yes, shooting them or damaging or penatrating the brain will kill them and they won't get back up again. But how could they work to kill all of the zombies that she know guessed were roaming around America? Could they discover a gas to rid them? Something.

She knew there was something and she wanted to be the one to discover that antidote.

She also wanted to find the antidote to give to a person once they were bitten. There had to be one, right? She prayed every night to God to give her the strength to find these answers and everyday she tried to study them and tried to figure it out. But she didn't have the proper tools and hell, she was no scientist. But she wanted to help somehow. She thought of her notepads stored in her side table.

Bryanne tossed onto her side facing the balcony. She had the glass doors opened slightly to let in the breeze in the room. The light from the moon shined onto her face and she enjoyed it.

_And maybe when I figure out the cure to rid the world of those zombies, maybe I'll find my family._

_

* * *

_

**Author's Note: **_Well. This is the 15th chapter of this story and well..I dunno. I'd like some reviews...Tell me what you think about this story so far._

_Who are you favorite characters?_

_Who do you not like? Who do you want to learn more about? What kind of character would you like to see in the future?_

_What were your favorite parts of the story so far? Least favorite?_

_Anything you would like to see in the future?_

_Just anything._

_Kay?_

_-Anna_


	17. Rusty Cage

**Rusty Cage**

Amelie slept that night, suprisingly. She had seen many things in her life but she had never seen anything like this. _They called them zombies. _All while at the resturant, she guessed she got maybe 3 hours of sleep. She couldn't sleep there, not with those demons trying to break in. Sometimes they stopped, like when she pulled the blinds down on the windows. She guessed maybe the calmed after not seeing people for a while and they weren't very smart, she guessed again, so they probally forgot she and her grandson were there.

Little Dylan slept as well, she was glad the girls had taken him swimming for it helped tire him out. Amelie ran her fingers through his mousey hair and he didn't stir a bit. He had hair exactly like his mothers. Amelie sighed heavily. "Where are you, Heather?" she asked softly.

The old woman tucked the blankets tighter around her grandson and she walked towards the small coffee pot in the room, her steps graceful and quiet. She poured herself a cup and mixed in a spoonful of sugar and a spoonful of creamer, just the way she had always liked it. Taking her mug in her hands, she moved gracefully to the couch in the room and sat down and she took a deep sip.

The decor of the room was not her style at all. The bed had the brightest red blankets she had ever seen. She missed her thick quilt that laid on her bed, which she had recieved from her own mother which was orginally from France. The fake potted plants were of flowers in bright reds and pinks and that too was not her style. She had real flowers in her house, lilacs and daisys. The little nook in the room was very nice and she was ever so grateful for the coffee maker. Amelie couldn't live without her coffee.

The lone painting in the room was of a little Japanese girl wearing a beautiful flowery kimono. She liked it very much.

She had the blinds drawn on the little balcony in the room and she had the TV going, playing an old black and white movie. She had the TV a bit loud becuase at night, the moans of the zombies kept her awake. She hoped the TV wouldn't wake little Dylan. But she knew he wouldn't want to hear those damn monsters either.

Dylan was a very sporty kid, mainly because Heather and her husband Lance signed him up for every children's league they could. He played little league baseball, soccer, and football and she knew he loved to swim very much. Amelie always pictured him being a sports star in high school and getting a scholarship to one of those fancy schools and he would be on that sports channel, ESPN she thought, all the time. But now what would happen to him?

What would happen to her?

Damn. What would happen to all of them?

Amelie was waken from her thoughts from a knock at the door and she almost dropped her coffee mug trying to get up. She walked to the door, still dressed in her clothes, jeans and a black shirt, and she opened the door. The sweet girl from before, Bryanne, was standing in the doorway with a tray in her hands and a big, goofy smile on her moviestar mouth. On the tray were a muffin, apple, and an omelet. Also, there was a glass of orange juice, apple juice, and milk. The girl had her white blonde hair down and it was wet it it made her look somehow angelic and she wore a jean skirt and a baggy black sweatshirt.

"Good morrning," She said, her texan accent thick, "I thought I'd bring you some breakfast. Did I wake you?"

"'Morring yourself," Amelie said, letting the girl in, "No, I was up already."

Bryanne set the tray on the coffee table in the room and she gingerly let herself sit on the sofa. Amelie sat next to her and watched her bright eyes move to sleeping Dylan.

"He's such a good little kid," She said absently.

"Yes. He is."

Amelie reached for the apple on the tray and brought it to her lips. Bryanne sat with her hands in her lap, her back perfectly straight in the perfect posture she used to sit in before she became so...old. Bryanne glanced to her nervously. She seemed afraid. Like she didn't know what to say to her and she was trying to choose her words carefully.

"Did you sleep well?" Bryanne asked quietly.

"What do you think?" Amelie said, giggling a bit. Bryanne smiled, shyly, and let out a giggle as well. Amelie liked this young girl.

"You're right," Bryanne said, glancing to the bed where the little boy was stirring.

Dylan opened his eyes, the blue bright and glazed. He yawned, but he stopped as he saw Bryanne. He was used to her, but still felt shy around anyone he didn't know greatly, like all children.

"Morning, handsome," Bryanne said, smiling like a clown at him. Dylan giggled and crawled out of bed, his little power rangers shirt rumpled and worn. Dylan set his little feet on the ground and almost bounced over to his grandma and sat near her. After Dylan settled himself on the couch, he glanced to his grandma.

"Gramma?" He asked, his voice raspy from sleep, but still cute.

"Yes?" Amelie awnsered, rubbing his back.

"When are we going home?" He asked. He looked at her with his sea-ish blue-greens that reminded Amelie of herself and a bit of Heather.

"We are home, honey. This is our home," Amelie said. She hated how her voice sounded unsure, but she felt sure inside. She didn't know if Heather was alive or not anymore. She didn't know where Lance could be either, but she hoped he was alive. Dylan was her responsibility now. It scared her, but she would protect him with every fiber of her being. She wouldn't let the little boy out of her sight ever again. She would never let anything happen to him.

Amelie glanced at Bryanne and somehow, she felt this little teenager was feeling the exactly the same thing she was, as if their hearts were beating as one and their minds were one. Bryanne nodded at her, barely a nod.

With Dylan at her side and Bryanne on the other, the little Texan teenager gave Amelie and her grandson a tour of the hotel.

She thought the hotel was very lovely and classy, but the rooms were a bit too up to date for her taste. There was a swimming pool, jacuzzi, and suana all in the same room. She knew Dylan would love the large pool and she knew she would get alot of use out of the jacuzzi. Outside of the pool hall, hidden by thin sheets of metal was a deck that was slightly raised off the ground. She felt that would be relaxing...but no one would take the chance.

There was also a utility room, staffroom, ballroom, and a resturant as well.

The resturant was Amelie's favorite part of the hotel. She met up with Rosita again in there. The Spanish woman was currently putting together a lunch of sandwiches and jello.

"Oh, hello," Rosita said, a little nervously as she wiped her hands on a towel on the stainless steel counters.

Amelie nodded her hello and said, "Are you the only "cook" in the hotel?"

Rosita giggled and said, "i'm not much of a cook, but everyone does enjoy what I make. Tatiana helps me sometimes."

"Then could I help you from now on?" Amelie said, laughing a bit and even feeling a bit embarassed. She was 70 years old and she was asking a 20 something women something like this. But she needed something-a job of some sort- to do in this hotel or she would go stir-crazy.

"Of course!" Rosita said, a look of shock on her face. She put her tan arm around Amelie's shoulders and said, "And I bet you are a much better cook than I am."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Sorry this took FOREVER to put up. I was having alot of trouble uploading documents...it just wouldn't let me upload them at all and I'm suprised it worked this time.

I'm taking a little break from writing for a bit. I have the next chapter pre-written and trust me. It is going to be good. Stick around and wait. Give me some reviews, tell me what you think, alrighty?

-Anna


	18. Drive On

**Drive On**

Lexi sighed heavily and crawled up from her spot in the back of the van to sit between the two front seats, in between Mama and Roman, her older brother.

Driving and driving and driving. She really liked going places, driving around at night with the wind blowing through her hair and all that good stuff. But not now, with the living dead roaming all over the damn place and everyone dying. It was horrible, she felt miserable and a little sick. They had just packed up and left and they had been eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for two days now, which meant two days on the road.

And Lexi usually hated peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Lexi Holliday was 18 and half years old. Wasn't 18 years old just the perfect time to be on the run with your family to get away from damn zombies? Toting a shotgun the entire way and driving the abandoned back roads in an old 70's style van, shag carpet and all.

Lexi (Alexandria was her real name. Too formal for her though) was short, maybe 5'4 and she had long, slightly wavy platinum blonde hair and she had dancing, always excited green eyes. She wore a pair of ripped up jeans, usually jeans she wore helping out on the farm, a black wife beater, and a button up black shirt that she usually wore to her job at a bar called Stu's. She was just getting ready for work on that fateful day, at around 5 o clock.

When she heard a shotgun blast coming from downstairs and Roman yelling.

She shook her head.

Roman was driving, one hand on the ripped up leather of the steering wheel and the other hand holding onto the CB that their Daddy has installed in the old piece of shit years ago. Maybe two or three years before he died. Liver failure from all the drinking he did. She was Daddy's little girl. When Daddy had died, she had became her Uncle Joey's Princess. It wasn't the same as being Daddy's Little Girl, but it made up for it.

Uncle Joey always took her out to lunch at Mcdonalds when she wasn't at school and he always took her driving around in his old muscle cars. Like his bright red 1979 corvette or his yellow and black 1975 Mustang or her favorite (and his) black and white 1970 Chevelle. No one else got to ride in the muscle cars but her. Sometimes Eli, but not Roman. He was too messy. And Uncle Joey always came to her Volleyball and Softball games.

But then Uncle Joey died one night, going from Danny Boy's Bar And Grill to Bonnie's Pub. He was riding on the back of his best friend's motorcycle and a drunk driver hit them head on. Uncle Joey flew off the back of the motorcycle and his best friend, Lexi thought his name was Frank...or maybe Larry...She didn't remember. Larry or Frank or whoever was fine. A little bruised up, a broken arm and leg.

But Uncle Joey was in a coma. Lexi could remember waking up at 4 in the morning, wearing her pink nightgown and Mom telling her to get dressed because they had to go somewhere. She thought maybe they were going on an adventure. Mama looked very sad and was helping Roman and Eli pick out their clothes. Lexi never needed help.

Lexi's Grandma and Grandpa decided to pull the plug on Uncle Joey's machines that were keeping him alive. He was in a state called "persistent vegetative state." He wasn't going to wake up anymore. He had brain damage and only had a 5 chance of waking up from it and even if he did wake up...

That was the second worse day of Lexi's life.

Roman rolled down the window on his side and asked, "Lexi, get me a cigarette."

"Kay," Lexi said, waking up from her little dream world. Her eyes stun and a lump was slowly forming in her throat, but she ignored it. You can't change the past, but you have to keep on living she told herself. She pulled Roman's almost empty pack of Newports from the cup holder in front of her and she pulled a thin white cigarette out of the flimsy pack. She handed it to Roman and handed him his red lighter.

He lit up as the CB crackled to life.

"God damn zombies aren't letting up. I gotta gas up the 'rig soon, I'm heading up highway 137," A gruff, southern voice said. Lexi and her family had grown to know this gruff voice as Frankie. There were some other truck drivers- Johnny, Amanda, and Chunk. And there were some police officers holed up in some stations, keeping themselves amused on the CB. There were some that had the CB radios in their homes. Lexi prayed for them.

They were their friends, but most were too far away for them to come save. They themselves didn't know where they were going. On the CB, on the first day they were heading out, they heard about a hotel that was holding up survivors. Some of the truck drivers said they were going to head there, the hotel was in Raven Heights, some shitty-prissy resort town. Everyone was saying that they were holding up good, had lots of food, lots of warm beds, and guns and ammo.

Roman Holliday was 23 years old, with shaggy black hair and brown eyes hidden behind aviator glasses. He had a cigarette tucked between his lips and even one tucked behind his ear just in case he ran out. He wore a sweated up white t-shirt, muddy jeans, and his work boots. Mama sat next to him, reading her beat up old white leather bible. She read her bible to keep her sane, she said. "With these creatures running around, we've got to keep a little God in our lives, honey," she had explained during the first few hours of their journey.

Mama had long, stringy blonde hair like her and she kept her bangs and stray pieces of hair out of her eyes with pink hair clips and a pink and white polka dotted headband she had bought at Wal-Mart. She wore her waitress outfit that she wore to her job at Malone's in town, a dressy button up white shirt and a cute light blue skirt with matching blue heels. Mama cursed herself for going to work that day, Lexi, Eli, and Roman had picked her up from work. Chaos was errupting all in their farm-slash- business-y town.

Eli (Everyone called him Eli but Mama. She called him Elisha, his given name. Everyone started calling him Eli after a bunch of kids had made fun of him in first grade for his name. That all changed when Mama came to school and threatened the little kid's parents though...) was sitting quietly in the back of the van, his head cocked to one side so he was looking out of the back windows.

Eli was the perfect child of the Holliday Family. Perfect angel looks, perfect grades, perfect attitude, perfect player at any sports he tried, perfect EVERYTHING. Lexi sometimes hated him. But she couldn't. He was her little brother and well, she loved him. No one in the Holliday Family had ever been to college. No one. Daddy was a race car driver at a small track in town and was also a painter for a company and also had his own house painting company. Mama had her own seamstress business for a while, but then she started waitressing. Grandpa was a race car driver and a janitor at a high school.

Not much to be proud of, Lexi always thought. But she was proud of her family.

But Eli would be going to college, of course. He was going to get a scholarship for a good high school for football (he played football and soccer) and Lexi would try to scrape together some money for college or she would try to get an academic scholarship.

She wasn't so sure anymore...would she be going to college now? With all this things roaming around?

Mama said "This is America and we always fight back and we always come out fine in the end." But she wasn't so sure...

Eli had short, slightly shaggy light brown hair that slightly curled at the edges and had brown doe eyes. He wore a pair of scruffy blue jeans, a black polo, and his worn running shoes.

Lexi caught his eyes and he nodded at her slightly.

"You okay, Eli?" Lexi asked him, pushing away from the two front seats to go to sit by him. He nodded and slowly wrapped his arms around her knees and he went off into his own little world again. His shotgun lay, almost buried in the warn blue shag carpeting of the van. Lexi's gun was near the seats and Mama's was in her lap, under her bible. They were hunters and of course had all kinds of guns. So maybe they were lucky.

They had found out shooting zombies in the heads killed 'em.

Mama said, "Look out Roman."

Lexi looked up and saw one of the zombies in the road. It turned around once it heard the hum of the engine and it began to sprint towards the van. Roman stepped on the gas a bit and rammed the zombie head on. Blood lightly splattered the windshield and so did a bit of grayish brain matter. It flew over the windshield and over the top of the van and to the pavement. They all cheered, goofily and Lexi was suprised that they found it so eventful that Roman hit a zombie.

Not too big a deal anymore.

"We need to stop for gas soon..."Roman said as he tossed his cigarette butt out of the window. Mama glanced up from her bible to check the gas gauge. They were close to empty. A knot formed in Lexi's stomach, thinking about being stranded in the middle of nowhere with crazy ass man eating zombies running around. It made her shudder just slightly.

Right now they were heading up a back road that would lead into a small town, maybe with a population of a thousand or 2 or so. She rested her head against Eli's shoulder and she closed her eyes. Eli was her little brother and she should be trying to comfort him and trying to see if he was okay but it was a bit of the other way around. Eli put his arm around her shoulder and she relaxed. She knew they would make it out in the end.

"Get the gas and get some water from inside. No dicking around. I mean it," Roman said, looking at all of them from the driver's seat. Lexi grabbed her shotgun in her hands and held it tight, tight enough to make her knuckles white. The weight of the loaded shotgun made her feel at easy and calm. It wasn't like the normel hunting rifle she used to hunt, but it was close. She imagined herself deep in the woods, wearing her Dad's old camo jacket that always made her feel protected. Just her, the wind the wilderness, and the prey.

"Let's go," Mama said, jumping out of the passenger side door. Roman jumped out of the driver's side and ran to the gas pump. Eli and Lexi scrambled out of the back through the two back doors of the van. Mama guarded Roman, who was pumping gas and Eli and Lexi were going to go inside and get some snacks and water.

"I am not eating anymore fucking peanut butter and jelly sandwiches," she screamed out loud as Eli pulled open the glass doors of the gas station.

She paniced at they entered. A few fans were blowing behind the counter, but no one was there. She saw a phone off the hook, hanging from its curly cord and the cash register hanging open with only a few coins and dollar bills in it, but nothing else out of place. Eli looked behind the counter, shotgun raised and she glanced around some the corners. but no one was there. She guessed maybe the worker at the time probally got out of here while he could.

"It's safe. Let's just get what we need and get the heck out of here," Eli said to her. Eli never swore. That's just how he was and it sometimes annoyed Lexi, but she didn't mind. She grabbed a basket from the front of the counter and she pulled open the glass coolers and tossed a couple bottles of water in it, along with a few sodas. Faintly, she could hear footsteps besides Eli's and her own. It only made it her go faster.

Eli tossed various bags of snacks and candy bars in the basket and the ran out of the gas station just as they heard a crash. Lexi guessed it was the bathroom door she saw down the little hallway in the gas station. She hadn't bothered to look down it. Roman scrambled to get into the van and Mama has just slammed her door shut as Eli and Lexi sprinted to the open back doors.

Behind them, in the gas station, the zombie that was hidden in the can had made itself visable. It was the worker Lexi thought had escaped while it could. She was marvelled that there was no blood anywhere in the front of the station, but she was scared none the less. The zombie bashed on the glass windows and door of the gas station, splattering blood and spit over the glass. Eli closed the doors behind her and Roman pressed his foot to the gas pedal and sped out of the gas station parking lot.

Everyone glanced at each other, everyone feeling glad that they had made it out all alive and in one piece. Mama picked up her white bible and began to read aloud to them. Lexi looked back to see a few zombies that had cought up to them. She shivered slightly and she opened up a bottle of water and began to dig into a bag of ranch Dorritos.

* * *

Author's Note: My my my... Its July 2nd and I haven't updated this since April 22nd!? Well, don't worry. I won't let that happen again for a long time! 

Alot has happened in the past 3 months. My grandma was diagnosed with leukemia and died. School ended. My other grandma had leg surgery. Where to begin?

Just plain and simple. I didn't want to write. I didn't have writer's block, hell no, I have an entire notebook with ideas written in it. I just didn't want to write, I dreaded the though of writing. And since my main story is a zombie story? Who wants to write a zombie story when their grandma just died? Not me.

But I'm back, for good. I want to write now. yayyyyy!

And I made a trailer for this story after seeing many people post trailers (like move trailers) for their fan fictions up on youtube. I had to do it because i'm a big copy cat! So here it is!

Since this site won't allow links, please go to youtube and look up my username, OblivionCrown . You should find me! And my trailer will be easily recongnizable since it is the only zombie video I have up. GASPSHOCK

-Anna 3


	19. Greener With The Scenery

**Greener With The Scenery**

Mama screamed as she looked back at all of the zombies that had caught up with them. Lexi felt a little scared too, so she cradled her shotgun in her arms.

As they got through the little town, zombies had come from everywhere. Crawling, running, anything to get to their hot flesh. The morbid thought made shivers run up and down Lexi's spine and arms. Roman kept the pedal to the metal and everyone could help but feel a bit jumpy.

Mama couldn't concentrate on her bible, so she turned to Lexi.

"Pray with me, Baby?" She asked. Lexi nodded. "Of course, Mama."

Lexi took her Mother's cold, boney hand in her own and she glanced to Eli. "Get your butt up here and pray with us."

Eli blushed slightly and said, "Of course."

Lexi took his stronger hand in her own, her finger nails painted hot pink, and Mama began reading from her Bible to them.

"Oh God, who knowest us to be set in the midst of such great perils, that, by reason of the weakness of our nature, we cannot stand upright, grant us such health of mind and body, that those evils which we suffer for our sins may we overcome through Thine assistance through Christ our lord-"

And they all finished by saying Amen.

"Hold on!" Roman shouted. The van shook at he hit two zombies head on. Mama screamed again and Lexi held her hand tighter and she herself began to shake a little bit, but she tried not to be. Roman turned on the windsheild wipers to wipe off the blood and guts and brain off of the windsheild. Mama began to cry and whenever Mama cried, Eli being the Mama's boy he is, began to tear up a bit.

"Come on, we can't stop now," Mama said, her voice cracking.

They repeated the prayer and as they did, the CB crackled to life once again. It had been dead for a while.

"Hello? Is anyone out there?" It was a female voice they had never heard before. It was a sweet, Texan accent.

"Lemme awnser," Lexi said as she grabbed the CB out of Roman's hand. He smacked her lightly on the arm and Lexi punched him back and she said, "Hey. This is the Holliday Van, going up...-"

"Highway 2," Mama told her, nodding.

"Highway 2. Looking for a place to sleep. To hold up," Lexi said, glancing around at the land around her. The highway was mainly abandoned, but they had passed by two or three cars. Empty with their doors open, she recalled. The CB was dead for a minute, but then the Texan voice came back.

"Highway 2...You are comming up to Raven Heights, are you not?"

Lexi looked for assurance from Mama or Roman, and Roman nodded.

"Yes, we are."

"Yay! You're comming towards us!" The voice said. The girl sounded giddy and excited. "My name is Bryanne, just so you know-"

The voice was cut off and Lexi could faintly hear a voice, the voice of a man, say "Bryanne, what are you doing?"

"Oh, hi Jeff. I found a group of people on the road! heading our way!"

"Give me that..." The man Lexi guessed was Jeff said. On the CB, the man awnsered.

"Hello?"

"Hey," Lexi said, giggling a bit. The giggled faded as Roman swerved to the right as a trio of zombies burst out of the brush on the side of the road. Lexi fell into Eli's lap and she hit her head on the shoulder of the passenger side seat. "God, what the fuck, watch where you're going asshole!"

"I'm trying! Do you want to drive?!" Roman shouted at her, his ciggerette almost dropping from between his lips.

"My name is Jeff. A group of people and myself are holding up in a hotel in Raven Heights. I'm sure you've heard of the place. But anyhow, we have plenty of food, plenty of rooms, and guns and ammo."

"Heh, sounds good. Don't mind if we pop in for a spell?" Lexi said, giggling a bit again. The two zombies had fallen behind and she had pulled herself from out of Eli's lap and Roman was looking at her through the rear view mirror.

"Not at all. We're glad to have you. How are the zombies out there?"

Lexi then handed the CB to Roman, who was pushing at her to talk.

Lexi leaned up in between the seats and kissed her mother on the cheek. Mama was busy reading her bible and she barely noticed. Lexi sat back and laid on one of the big, but old pillows they kept in the back of the van. She grabbed her bottle of coke, with half of the soda left in it, and she pulled her ranch Dorritos back to her side and she began to eat them.

She never liked to think about death.

She didn't like to think about life after death.

She didn't want to think about any of that because a. She didn't want to die and b. she was afraid of dying, death, and all of that in general.

Lexi remembered one time she was in the hospital for surgery for her leg. She was jumping on the trampoline and Roman was with her. She had jumped up to do a back flip becuase she was good at doing at them and Roman, being an older brother, pushed her off to show his superiority to her. She hit the back of her head on the trampoline people told her and she blacked out. She remembered none of it. She must have fallen on her leg and broke it, Roman told her the bone was sticking out of it too and blood was gushing out of it. She remembered none of it but they rushed her to the hospital and she had to have surgery for her leg and also had to have many MRI's and such to see if she had brain damage.

And she remembered this was a month or two after her Uncle Joey died. Lexi swore to god, as they were wheeling her down to OR, she woke up. And she didn't see doctors around her. She saw her Uncle Joey. And he swore to her that everything would be okay and that nothing would happen to her and that she was fine.

And sometimes, she can feel her Dad's prescence around her. She hated to think of the after life.

But she thought Heaven, even though she didn't want to think about it, was a very nice place. It was what you wanted it to be. For Lexi, she kinda thought it would be near the ocean. And it would be beautiful, and it would always be nighttime because nighttime was her favorite time of the day and sometimes it would be warm and sometimes it would be inbetween. And sometimes it would rain and sometimes it wouldn't.

And Daddy and Uncle Joey and everyone she loved would be there.

Lexi took a long sip of her coke and relished in how the soda burned her throat and felt refreshing. Mama was still reading her bible, Roman was lighting up another ciggerette, and Eli was dozing off where he sat, a look of innocence and a look of fear mixed onto his pale features. Lexi settled into her pillow and pulled her hunting jacket around her and she closed her eyes to try and doze off.

She opened her eyes to watch the trees-some bare, some not- pass by her window and she watched how it mixed with the blueish-grey of the sky.

She felt a bit afraid to doze off becuase she didn't want something bad to happen, but she felt faith.

And when she fell alsleep, she dreamt of walking down the white sand of a beach, the bright clear blue waters of the ocean tickling at her toes and the sun setting in the distance. Waiting ahead was Daddy and Uncle Joey, smiling at her brightly. She took it as a nightmare more than a dream.

* * *

**Author's Note: **_I have too many characters, keeping these characters will just lead to more damn trouble with keeping up with all the characters!_

I couldn't kill off these characters, I got to close with them I guess you could say. An idea that I came up with when writing the past two chapters was the van crashing, rolling over, killing the mom and 2 brothers but leaving Lexi alive and her crawling out of the van and walkng down the empty streets until meeting her gruesome demise... But I put too much of myself into these 4 characters!! xD

Glad for the update? I'm glad. Leave me some reviews guys!! Howa bout we get to 30 reviews?! I need confidence and encouragement too, ya know. nn;;

Thanks for Reading!

-Anna


	20. Fire In The Twilight

**Fire In The Twilight**

"C'mon you two," Amelie giggled, "This isn't that hard to make."

She sounded like she was joking, but Tatiana wasn't too sure. The wooden spoon in her small, pale, but strong looking hand looked quite dangerous.

Tatiana and Bryanne were in the kitchen with the little old woman, Amelie, making dinner. Jimmy was having a little "date" with Rosita. Bryanne and Tatiana helped him search around for the little vanilla scented candles that were in every room and they had got together a bottle champagne and the flute glasses. Tatiana could just imagine how romantic it must be...

She was never too good with guys. She always felt like she had something better to be doing than worrying about guys and what to wear to impress them on dates. _Whatever..._

Tonight's dinner was meatloaf and freshly baked bread. Tatiana wished they could have simpler dinners, but the resturant wasn't simple. It was fancy and elegant and didn't have simple, basic necesscitys.

Tatiana and Bryanne were mixing the meat, eggs, bread crumbs, veggies, and parsley into a big, metal mixing bowl. It was an easy job, Tatiana admited. She had made it before with her Dad-who was a cooking/food network fanatic. But this time, being with her goofy best friend, it seemed harder. The meat couldn't stay in the bowl, but seemed to fly at each other and some of the ingridents kept falling out of the bowl and their laughter echoed throughout the fancy little kitchen.

When Amelie turned her back to look at all the high tech stainless steel appliances, Bryanne dug her hand into the bowl and chucked it at Tatiana. The meat flopped into her hair and the big glob fell down her apron, which was stained with worcestershire sauce and ketchup. She held back a scream, the thought of raw meat rubbing against her clothes made her want to vomit, and she also held back a laugh.

Bryanne bit on her lip to hold back the laugh and Amelie turned around and held the wooden spoon up. Bryanne and Tatiana stood up straighter and the smiles faded from their lips. But Amelie let out a little giggle, so soft that it was barely there, almost like the wind. Tatiana loved Amelie's giggles.

"You girls are too crazy for this little old lady," Amelie said, pulling out a rectangular pan out of a cupboard. She set it down on the table and began to put the meatloaf into the pan. "Bryanne, grab another pan and start filling it. We have mouths to feed."

Bryanne mock saluted and grabbed another pan. While she did that, Tatiana leaned onto the cold counter and rested her head into her hands. Bryanne set the pan carefully on the counter as if it was glass and she dug her hands into the meatloaf mixture and she mashed it around her hands and giggled.

"Not a toy little miss," Amelie said, slapping Bryanne's hand in the mashy mixture with her own meat soiled hand. Bryanne recoiled her hand and started to fake cry.

"No crying either," Amelie laughed her sweet, sea breeze giggle. Bryanne grabbed a glob of meatloaf and mashed it and molded it into the pan as Tatiana watched.

"What do you think the new survivors will be like?" Tatiana asked thoughtfully. She brought her hand to Bryanne's pan to smooth down Bryanne's lumpy molded meatloaf.

"Let's not talk about that now, girls, alright?" Amelie asked, looking up at them through her bright, honest sapphire eyes. Tatiana and Bryanne both nodded.

"I don't want to hear anymore of that zombie talk," Amelie spat as she grabbed both pans, a pan in each hand, and she walked to the large oven to bake them.

* * *

"God I am dying without nail polish!" Tatiana squeed to Bryanne as she plopped back into her chair on Bryanne's balcony. They were sipping smoothies they had made, they had found smoothie mixes deep in the kitchen and they were enjoyable but a bit powdery, and were enjoying the cool-warm air that was blowing at them.

They were also having a girly "slumber party."

They were trying to re-live the remnants of their past lives.

"God! What a fucking slumber party, hey?" Bryanne said, taking a big sip of her strawberry smoothie. "Hey! I didn't know these zombies were invited!"

"Party crashers!" Tatiana screamed at them. It still sent chills up and down her spine when they looked at her with their dead, lifeless eyes. Some were filmed over with white or maybe red but the look was all the same. They were hungry. They wanted to tear her apart. It sent another chill down her spine.

Usual slumber parties with her old friends, Bria and Kenzi, were typical. They ordered pizza, ate like pigs, did their nails, watched favorite movies like Valley Girl and some horror movies (Tatiana looked back and knew she was living in one right now) and they would stay up all night long.

Slumber parties with Bryanne were diffrent.

They would go down to the jacuzzi and drink diet cokes and talk and sit in the sauna and watch the limited ammount of movies that were in the hotel, mainly disney movies like Mulan or The Rookie. Not the greatest, but it would do.

"When we go to that Walmart...we must get nail polish," Tatiana said, sinking back into her chair. She took a deep sip of her cherry smoothie.

"Are you okay, Tati?" Bryanne asked, spinning her chair around to face her. Bryanne had her hair pinned up in a high ponytail and little white blonde wisps fell in her face.

"Yeah. No. What future do we have here, huh?" Tatiana asked. She had been thinking it the entire time. In the back of her mind. What kind of life would they have living in a fucking hotel? She secretly prayed at night that somewhere, somewhere safe and hidden in the country, the army and the navy and the national guard and all the good saviors of the good ol US of A. And they were loaded with guns, bazookas, tanks, bombs, anything.

And a cure for this disease.

Or a cure to get rid of the already infected.

And they were ready to fight and bring the zombies down and help save the rest of the world and they would make sure nothing liek this would ever happen again.

"I just want things to go back to normal," Tatiana confessed. She stared down into the icy drink that she was sipping in a bright pink cup.

"Me too. Sometimes I think this is just some big nightmare," Bryanne said, taking Tatiana's hand in her own. Tatiana looked from her drink to Bryanne, but she was already looking at the sky and at the billions of stars staring down on them.

She hoped that everything would go back to normel and she could go back to her daily life.

But what life would she have without her Dad? She was nothing without him.

"When everthing goes back to normel, let's all go live in a big mansion in L.A? Kay? Anywhere. It doesn't matter. New York. Russia. Whatever the fuck. We have to stick together. Forever." Tatiana said, giggling. Her giggle was empty. She had nothing now. Rosita had Jimmy. Amelie had Dylan. But she and Bryanne and the others had to stick together. They had abso-fucking-lutely nothing anymore. Well. Maybe Bryanne had her parents if they were still alive...but it wasn't likely.

But secretly, Tatiana prayed for that too.

"Of course. Your my best friend, Tati," Bryanne said, squeezing her hand tighter, "We have to stick together with all of these crazy zombies running around. You watch my back, I watch yours."

Tatiana didn't awnser. She felt a big lump in her throat and she couldn't get it down.


	21. Bury Me Not

**Bury Me Not**

"We..." Mama began, "Have to climb up that ladder?"

"I think so. The windows look like their boarded up," Roman said slowly but his voice was strong and sounded not afraid. Lexi always thought of him as fucking crazy so of course he wouldn't be scared or anything. He was living through one of those silly games he used to play on the TV.

The hotel was a big white building but looked scarily omminous from the dark of the night but what made it seem somewhat safe was the few lights on that could be seen through some of the windows. Lexi could see a few people holding onto the ladder from one of the balconies and a few cars parked in front of the hotel, but there were tiny clusters of zombies surrounding them. When they saw the headlights of the van spotlight them, they ran to the van.

"Shitshitshit," Roman said, looking at them. They were surrounded by the bloody, thisty, hungry beasts. They smacked at the windows, smudging the class with their grimy fingers and their moans could be heard through the windows. The van shook with the comotion going around them. Roman looked angrier than anything and Lexi could see the craziness in his eyes. Eli was looking around, scared as hell and Mama. Oh, Mama.

She was trying to hold on a strong front but she could see the tears welling up in her ghostly eyes and her hands were clutched onto her white Bible, her knuckles blending in.

Roman stepped on the gas and Lexi flew back from her spot between the driver and passenger's seat, smashing into a box that had contained their lone duffel bag with their few supplies, and she flew back into the back doors, slamming her head into the handle. Her eyes began to water and she cracked the same spot on the handel again as the wheels traveled over something bulky... bodies of the zombies that Roman must have ran over.

Eli grabbed onto his shotgun and opened the window a crack, shifting the nose of the gun into the open crack and taking aim as best as he could into the cluster. Lexi did the same and didn't really flinch as she heard the blast of her little brother's gun shooting and rattling sourly against the glass and the top of the window sil.

Lexi couldn't aim as perfectly with the nose of her gun through the tiny crack of the window, but she just aimed and fired. She cought one of the zombies square in the chest and it fell, scrabbling at the dark pavement with its unearthly white fingers. She cought another at the side of the neck and the zombie's neck fell to one side as it did, the neck hanging by thick sinews of muscle and veins.

Roman skidded the van to a halt under the ladder. Lexi peeked from her window, light from the quater moon shining in her eyes. Shadows of a few people standing on the 2nd floor balcony could be seen and they were motioning with crazy hands for them to hurry up and to climb.

"Mama. Go!" Roman said, grabbing her hand. Mama looked at him strangely, as if she had just noticed him before, for the first time. She was scared now, the tears dripping slowly from her eyes in big fat drops, her stringy hair flying around her like a halo as Roman began to roll down the window.

"You have to climb, Mama," Roman said, squeezing her hand again. He took the bible from her other hand and said, "I'll bring it to you, I swear."

Mama's eyes were wide with freight and Lexi tried not to glance her way as she began to climb out of the window. Roman grabbed his shotgun and pointed it out of the passenger window and started blasting the heads off the zombies that were close to their mother. Mama climbed atop of the car, Lexi could see from her window and grabbed onto the ladder and began to climb, nervously. She felt scared, as if something would happen to her, or one of them. Something horrible.

"Eli, go," Roman said, pushing him up from the back of the car. Without question, he struggled out of the window, shotgun still in his arms not wanting to leave it behind, he climbed on top of the roof. Lexi glanced up at the ladder as she reloaded her shotgun and grabbed their duffel bag. Mama was up on the balcony, looking over at the van and her youngest child begining to climb.

Lexi grabbed the bible from Roman, a feeling of dread comming into her stomach and her stomach felt as though she had a cramp. It was the worst cramp she had ever felt in her life.

"It's your turn Lexi," Roman said, pulling at her arm to help her over the seats. Lexi didn't complied helplessly and let him pull her over and she settled herself onto the window sil.

"Just do it," Roman said, not showing a bit of emotion to his only baby sister. Lexi nodded though, used to it, used to her brother's strong, solider like attitude. She pulled herself up atop the van's roof, the metal of the car's frame slippery against her sweating fingers. She noticed that her shirt was stuck to her, she was drenched in sweat. She stood up on the van's roof, the metal bowing just a bit under her feet.

She grabbed onto the metal ladder rungs and began to pull herself up, slowly but surely. Lexi glanced up at the people looking down at her. They were sweaty and as anxious as she was, hopeful too. They were helping more people, she thought, so they were glad. She pulled herself up another few rungs, the duffel bag strap slightly slipping down her damp shoulder. She let go for a moment to pull it up and she glanced down.

They always told you to not look down...

A zombie had grabbed onto Roman's foot as he began his climb of the roof top, pulling on his boot. Roman looked and began kicking wildly at it, kicking it in the face. The zombie fell back slightly but lunged at the leg now. She could see it grab hold of her elder brother's leg with both hands and sink its teeth through the material of the pants and into the muscled flesh. Roman screamed like she had never heard him scream before.

He slipped from the window sil and fell face first into the hoard the zombies collecting around him and his captor. Lexi stopped, hand that had clutched the strap of the duffel bag fell to her side, the ladder swaying in the bathwater warm wind of the night.

The wind felt cruel and harsh to her damp skin.

She watched the zombies pull at her brother's skin and limbs, ripping him apart.

Lexi lost her footing on the ladder rung and she slipped, the world falling from under her.

She grabbed at the rungs as fast as she could. The weight of her body pulled devilishly at her arm, she almost thought her arm would be ripped right from it's socket.

Lexi screamed, the ladder swaying dangerously. She grabbed onto the ladder rung that was closest before her duffel bag hanging on her shoulder fell. She relished in the feeling of holding onto the ladder but was shaken when she heard a girl's voice:

"Come on! Hurry! I can help you! Climb!"

Lexi looked up to a see a golden haired girl holding her arm out from above, her eyes flashing with passion. Lexi knew she had to get to this girl.

She pulled herself up the rungs, rung by rung, climbing as fast as she could, feeling almost as though the zombies were chasing after her insted of being some feet below, waving their hands in the air, trying to reach her.

When she made it to the balcony, the girl grabbed onto her hand and helped pull her up. When she got her feet onto the cement of the floor of the balcony, her legs swayed from under her, glad to be back on actual ground and safe. Before she could blink or even say a world, Mama and Eli had her in a big bear hug, sobs filling her ears. She felt hollow inside.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Rest In Peace Tammy Faye Messner. I know you won't be suffering anymore and you'll never be in pain again, you're in such a better place now.

And I guess on that depressive note... I had major back surgery on October 24th 2006 for cure my scoliosis and kyphosis with instrumentation (aka titanium rods, 4 feet of it with plenty of screws) and was out of school in just absolute pain for 2 and a half months. Well. I have to have the surgery preformed all over again to cure the rapidly growing scoliosis in my lower back. Yep. What a life.

Just keep positive I guess. :[


	22. A Never Ending Vacation

**A Never Ending Vacation**

"You did it, Dylan!" Tatiana said, running up to the little boy, "High five!"

The little boy ran to her from across the roof top and slapped his tiny hand into her pale one. Tatiana squeezed his hand with her long fingers and smiled because he was smiling for the first time. Sure, he had smiled before here and many, many times before in his few short years. But this smile was genuine. No fear struck his young, undeveloped features and for that, she was glad and could smile herself.

It had been one week since The Holliday family arrived at the hotel, it had been a month and a half in the hotel. A month and a half that the world had gone to hell, to the dogs, whatever you wanted to say. But somehow, they were still alive and still making it through each day. Sure, each day had its struggles but the survivors had each other to depend and rely on. A month and a half of no contact with the government, all radios and TV broadcasts had gone down a while ago. Not even the emergency alert system came across the screens or across the airwaves of the radio.

It was very cryptic and eerie, but they lived.

It was a typical California day in October. It was about noon and maybe 60 degrees and pleasant and the sky was bright, blue and fairly cloudy. Tatiana, along with Bryanne, Lexi, Hilary, Lucie, and of course Dylan were playing their own version of soccer.

They had found old rusted rolls of metal mesh in the supply closet and they cut them to make the nets and nailed them onto some steel rods they had found. For the ball, they used a beach ball they found in a closet in the pool area and Tatiana blew the ball up herself. It was werid, playing soccer and having some others on guard duty on the roof as well. But it seemed so human.

So normal.

It brought a sense of normality to the hotel, to the mostly teenage girls in the hotel and even to the others if they weren't too busy to participate. Everyone thought it would be good for Dylan too, to play activities that normal 7 year old boys would play. He was an absolutely normal little boy, the cutest little boy Tatiana had ever seen, and he was normal. He just didn't have parents anymore and lived in a hotel, insted of staying there on a vacation.

They were on a never ending vacation, surrounded by hell on earth.

They were going to make the best of it if it was the last thing they could do.

Tatiana smiled as Dylan walked back to his place in front of her and behind her, Bryanne got ready as the goal keeper. On Tatiana's team was Dylan and Bryanne and on Lexi's team was herself, Hilary, and Lucie. With the goal that Dylan just made, they were leading by 1, which was very confidence lifting since they had just won there last match yesterday. Tatiana's team now lead Lexi's team 3 to 2. Dylan took alot of pride in that score and he bragged and boasted to his grandma and to everyone else who would listen in the hotel.

Hilary and Dylan met at the center of their little "field" and Hilary set the ball on the ground. On three, they both struck. Hilary, being fairly tall for only 24 years old couldn't match Dylan's small, advantageous height. Dylan kicked the ball right from inbetween her legs and started heading for the enemy goalpost. Hilary put up chase and kicked it away from Dylan and it landed to Lucie, who kicked it back to Hilary.

Hilary started dribbling towards Tatiana but Dylan dove and slid, knocking the ball away from Hilary. Dylan got up though, even though there were some scrapes on his knees. He didn't cry over it, like some children might have done. The game was most important to him and he wanted to win like mad!

Tatiana dribbled the ball that Dylan had kicked to her towards the center and after recovering, Dylan sprinted to her side. She kicked, he got it at the perfect angle - or at least what he thought - and kicked it as hard as he could. Everyone of the girls stopped playing and watched the ball soar towards another building, the rainbow beach ball that they were using as a soccer ball.

The beach ball soared across the open air and bounced hard against another building, an old pizza joint where two zombies were crawling over each other trying to get over each other - and soared straight into the hoard of zombies that were clustered around the building and smacked one of the zombies straight in the head.

The ball richoched off the zombies head, blood splattered now and smashed another one in the stomach before the momentum and speed the ball had died out and fell to the ground. The zombie who was hit in the head fell to her knees and was clutching her head as if she was still alive and had a headache. The one hit in the stomach looked around dazed and confused.

All of the girls started to cheer and clap for Dylan who looked mad. "Now how are we supposed to play!?"

The sun had just set, causing the sky to turn a fairly dark blue color and Tatiana could make out a few darker blue clouds hiding amongst the sky. She had guard duty tonight along with one of the Holliday family members, Eli. Tatiana didn't know much about him. He talked to Alex a bit, but mainly kept to Lexi and his mother. He was really shy, Alex said.

Tatiana hugged her dark teal sweatshirt closer to herself as she sat down on one of the chairs set out for her. In her arms, she had one of their rifles. Eli was sitting in the other chair, clad in a black hooded sweatshirt that was far too big for his fairly small frame and jeans that didn't fit him quite right.

"Hey," Tatiana said, trying to get him to look her in the face. He glanced up slightly, his brown eyes inquiring and seemed thoughtful. He nodded shortly and put his full attention back onto his shotgun which he was loading with ease, pulling the shells from the small blue box on the coffee table in front of them.

"How are you holding up?" Tatiana asked, setting her gun on the table and crossing her arms over her chest. It was maybe 50 or 60 degrees out but there was a cold breeze blowing, stinging at her legs through her capris that Rosita lent her. She didn't want to seem like she was prying, but she wanted to talk to him, to get to know him. She had lived in the hotel for a month and a half and still didn't know everyone so well.

Eli pumped the shotgun and then set it at his side and looked at her for a long time, like he was figuring out what to say. Tatiana could understand. It was just like when her Grandma had died, from Leukemia. She was in the room with her entire family and it just... happened. It happened so fast, you couldn't say much. That was probally how he felt about his older brother Roman, the boy who had died trying to get to the ladder. It had happened fast, Tatiana had been watching. They just hadn't been fast enough to shoot the zombie got him.

She felt guilty as sin. Maybe that was why she wanted to get to know him better, to befriend him. Maybe Eli hated her and thats why he didn't want to talk to her or to anyone else. Tatiana hoped not.

"I'm holding up," He began. His voice was soft and scratchy, but in a good almost comforting way. "There isn't much I can do but try and help out. My momma..."

He stopped, just thinking. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I understand, it's private."

Tatiana could tell he was a little Momma's boy so he didn't want him to tell her stuff he didn't want anyone knowing. His sister Lexi was very open and she was very close with Tatiana and Bryanne, she just fit in so well like the perfect puzzle piece in a sick and twisted puzzle. A puzzle with a million pieces that didn't seem to fit.

"She's very sad. She's praying all the time and reading her bible," He said, glancing away from her.

"It's okay, its very understandable. My grandma used to be like that, very religious. She liked going to this one church.. It was absolutely gigantic on this one hill but very beautiful. With lots of stained glass. I bet your Mom would like to see it. If only things were diffrent you know?" Tatiana said.

"If things were diffrent then we probally wouldn't even be here. Not in this situation...," Eli said calmly but his voice seemed edge with something else, like anger. Tatiana could understand very much.

"My father was killed by one of the zombies. The first zombie I ever saw and the first thing that told me something was wrong..."

_Tatiana's father always had many engagments to do, being the district attorney. Most of the time he was busy at his office at the police station and would be busy at home still working on cases. Tatiana would help him as much as she could, highlighting things for him, bringing him dinner and juices that he liked. She would go to the police station at his lunch hour and they would go to the quiet little diner across the street and eat._

_Tonight, he was off to a small party given by Police Chief Gray's wife, just a "little get together" with all the big heads of the department. Little get together was more like the banquet hall at one of the richest hotels in town with a classical band and many expensive caterers, her father had told her. He had to wear a suit and all._

_Tatiana was used to staying home alone on nights like these. Her father would make her something to eat before he would leave since she could never get enough of his cooking and he'd go. She'd watch TV, read, and go to bed and wake up and make him breakfast._

_She had waken up that morrning, very groggy and tired, even though she had went to bed at maybe 8. Nights without her father seemed kind of boring and uneventful since Dad never wanted her to have friends over while he wasn't home. She sat up in her bed and streched and then made her way down the hallway._

_She heard a few noises, but she didn't take much notice. Sometimes, she would wake up to find her Dad up before her, already making chocolate chip pancakes on the very much used griddle they owned. When Tatiana walked into the neat, wood themed kitchen she didn't think much of seeing the channel changed thrown on the small marble island in the middle of the room. Her father's cooking pots and pans hung above the island on an iron rack that hung from the ceiling and also stacked on the table top was a few cook books and a few golf magazines._

_Her Dad wanted to be the next Emeril mixed with a little Tiger Woods. She smiled and then grabbed onto the channel changer, thinking of maybe asking her Dad if he did want to go golfing that day. He had his own set of clubs and so did she and he could never get enough of going to an 9 or 18 hole course. _

_Then... Tatiana walked into the living room._

"I'm... so sorry," Eli said, looking away from her. He probally felt like he was prying now insted of her. Tatiana had tears gushing from her eyes and she felt bad, but not so bad. Everyone had to cry and think about a lost loved one something. But her dad... He wasn't really lost. He was gone, somewhere else, and his shell was walking around killing and hurting more people.

A shell. Thats what her mother always called a dead body. At a funeral once, one for her favorite grandpa, she said, "Grandpa really isn't here, baby. That is just a shell. Grandpa is up in heaven."

And Tatiana laughed and somehow, she forgot the tears. Eli looked at her, a confused and concerned expression on her face. And Tatiana told her.

Her life seemed somewhat ironically revolved around death. Her mother, her grandma, her grandpa, and then her father. Then the dead comming to life? It almost seemed like a horrible joke that god was playing on her. But she couldn't blame him, it wasn't anyone's fault. It just happened.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Yay! 30 reviews! Now to 35? Hmm?

I knew people wanted to know about how Tatiana stumbled across her Dad being attacked by the first zombie she ever seen and well... it was so sad to write since I put alot of the characteristics of my dad into Tatiana's Dad and it was well. Hard to write I could say, but all the more fun!

And if you wanted to dig deeper into some of the characters (some are the ones I have kinda forgotten about... o.o;;), then you will like the next chapter, which i have prewritten.

I might just take a break from writing... but we'll see. I really enjoy writing this. Love and peace, ya'll. But I guess not in the world of Dawn Of The Dead.

-Anna


	23. Tell Me Everything's Going To Be Alright

**Tell Me Everything's Going To Be Alright**

Anna Lena sat at one of the clothed circular tables in the resturant turned dining room, trying to sip at her luke warm coffee. Her eldest son, Roman, was dead. She was now only Mama to Elisha and Alexandria. Or well, Eli and Lexi. Her little babies were all grown up. Very much grown up now, with all the dead rising and going off and... well, killing people.

_Jesus has his reasons _Anna told herself. She just didn't feel like herself anymore, there was a large hole in her heart now and always a large lump in her throat.

At least the people at the hotel were nice. She got along quite well with the ladies Amelie and Rosita. Rosita was a very nice gal, she thought. Rosita could relate to her and was the first one to come to her side and comfort her when she was pulled from the balcony. _Pulled from seeing my baby... _She just couldn't bear to think of it, the lump in her throat hurting more than ever and even tears were stinging at her eyes.

Anna couldn't rip that horrible scene from her mind. The zombie grabbing onto Roman's foot, then biting it savagely...

She didn't want to cry, not at all. Roman wouldn't have to live through this any longer, no more suffering and worrying about what was going to happen now. She read her bible more frequently than ever but the many sentances and verses just seemed like blurs. She had read them too much and too often and she seemed hopeless. All of her life she had been a christian and her faith was leaving her just as the worst time, when she needed it most. The text just didn't make sense anymore when she needed them to more than ever.

Anna was startled as she heard the metal swinging doors whoosh together and out of the kitchen, covered in flour, were 3 girls. Her own daughter and her new best friends, Tatiana and Bryanne. They had a big plate of pancakes on a platter with her with a hearty ammount of maple syrup on it along with cinnamon sugar. On the platter was also a big, icy glass of orange juice, a fairly bruised apple, and a fake yellow daisy from one of the potted plants.

Lexi and her friends set down the platter and Lexi came and Anna was met with a bundle of sweet smelling bright blonde hair, the hair of her daughter, as she was wrapped into a large, tight hug.

"We made this all for you, Mama!" Lexi said, happily, pulling herself up face to face with her Mother, but not letting go. Anna Lena smiled, an actual smile, not a smile to give to Eli to make him not worry so much (which was absolutely impossible since he was the biggest worry wart Jesus put on the entire planet Earth!).

"Sorry about the apple. That's the last best looking one of the bunch," Tatiana said as Anna picked up the apple, which was almost mush, in her hands. It smelled bittersweet, like dead flowers.

"Want more syrup, Miss Holliday?" The girl Bryanne asked sweetly in her delightfully charming texan accent. She held up a fancy, but fake, silver container which looked slick and sticky with the syrup. Anna looked down at her pancakes, drenched and bloated in the sugary syrup.

The other girl, Tatiana let out a big laugh and Anna also found herself laughing. "No, I think this will last me a lifetime! Thank you..."

Lexi gave her mother a big kiss on the cheek and the two girls ran up to hug her and they disapeared back into the kitchen, most likely to clean up the mess since everyone else in the hotel got lumpy oatmeal for breakfast.

Anna grabbed her fork and knife and began to slowly cut up her soggy pancakes. Lexi was happy with her new friends, Lexi always seemed to be the one who had trouble making friends. She was like her father and her grandfather, she always seemed paranoid of the people around her and could barely trust anyone unless she really knew them. She was glad her only daughter was opening up finally. Eli was getting along with the other boys in the hotel.

Why shouldn't she be happy? Besides the fact that there were zombies crowding around the hotel, closing in on them, she was in a luxerious hotel and was on a vacation. Almost.

Hilary closed the stiff curtains on the glass doors of her balcony and rejoiced at the darkness and sank against the glass. She didn't want to deal with the bright noon sun. How could anyone not be depressed with crazy ass man eating freaks running around? She also had another thing nagging at her mind, too, not just the sun.

Her red-brown hair fell into her face as she threw herself onto her unmade bed, her thoughts taking over once again. Her room was a mess, she hadn't really strayed too far from her room unless she had watch up on the roof or chores to preform around the hotel. She got along fairly well with Lucie and some of the girls. But who wants to make friends when the end of the world was knocking on their door?

_It would be good to make friends... to make the end seem more painless. But it can't be helped..._

It just didn't make sense to her. They were eventually going to die. Food would eventually run out. It was destiny. Why make things more complicated with friends?

Tatiana St. Clair... The surname of St. Clair seemed so very familar. Wasn't St. Clair the district attorney of a city close by here? Hilary rubbed angrily at her bloodshot eyes and tried to wrack her brain. It just seemed so long ago...

Her father had murdered a woman on the street, along with her boyfriend, beating them both to death with a baseball bat and before running from the scene, he robbed them. He was tried by the state of California and St. Clair... David St. Clair.

He had to be Tatiana's father.

David St. Clair was the prosecutor in the case against her father, Richard. He was sentanced to life in prison... that very man had made her life hell. A burning sensation filled Hilary to her core, something like anger and pure hatred. What her father did was wrong... but life? It didn't seem fair! Maybe it was just the way she was brought up... or maybe becuase she loved her Dad, even though he didn't exactly love her back. Her childhood wasn't the greatest.

He was sick in the head. It wasn't like he wanted to be sick!

Richard had beaten her mother on a daily basis and just plainly ignored her. But somehow, Hilary still loved him. She felt pure pity when he called from the phone at the prison, telling her of his situation. Never before had he shown her so much attention. She wanted to say that it was because he had no one else to turn to since her mother hated him absolutely. But no. She knew better. Richard was finally realizing his true feelings for her, his true feelings for the daughter that he never once paid attention to.

She remembered that day at the court house, with its greek pillars that seemed to be fashionable and regal but it just seemed so cruel that day. The day her father was sentanced. The blue sky was laughing down at her and the clouds and the happy people walking the streerts just mocked her. The entire world mocked her. Hilary was the only who sat on the defense's side of the court room and then the judge did it. He sentanced her father to life in prison, no chance of parole.

Her father seemed so calm and he seemed very nice and willing when the buff secruity guards in the room came up to him and slapped handcuffs around his arms and even shackles at his feet. Richard had glanced at Hilary and only shook his head, to say that he gave in and only had to deal with it. He had commited the act, he had to pay the price. It just didn't seem fair!

_"Rot in hell you bastard!" A woman in the courtroom had screamed._

The sane part of her pleaded. _How can you love him? He brutally killed two people, robbed their dead corpses while they were still warm? You cannot love this man._

But maybe the "human" part of her said that it was her father, her flesh and blood, the person who helped give life to her.

Her father eventually died in prison, in the courtyard working out. One of the inmates dropped a weight directly on his head, killing him instantly...

Hilary wanted revenge... She wanted to have revenge for her deceased father. She would make sure he would love her and be thankful even though he was long gone burning in hell. She would make him proud, alright.

Bryanne slowly looked up from her wrinkled, well used pad of paper and glanced down at the visably hungry zombies below. She was carefully watching one zombie, just watching his movements from the rest. He seemed slow and sluggish, but there were no apparent reasons for it. All limbs were intact so to speak and nothing seemed to have hit his head.

The zombie was fairly rough, seemed more weatherbeaten than the others. It seemed like an older man, with a heavy flannel jacket on even through the california weather, and his pants were ripped to shreds and were soaked in blood and many abbrasions could be seen through the bloody tatters of denim and flesh. Dark purple, almost black bruises soaked his pale, crusty skin.

_Could age effect whatever caused these people to turn into zombies? _Bryanne mused. She wrote that question down next to the various sketches of the undead monsters on her notepad. Another question she had, what even caused this? A diesease or sickness? Or maybe a cetain phenomena or maybe parasite in a food product?

There were too many ways and just thinking about it all made her head hurt, so for the day, Bryanne closed her notepad. The sheets of white paper inside the red cardboard flaps were wrinkled with many uses and stained with ink from pens. She had many questions about the zombies and many observations and sketches. But just no awnsers.

Bryanne was on the roof, sitting in one of the lawn chairs on the roof. The sun was just about to set, the sky a red color, but the blue was still there fighting. The air still felt muggy on her bare legs, she wore a pair of her pajama shorts, but she still wore one of the longsleeved shirts she found in the utility closet (ironically a blue, black, and white flannel shirt) over a white t-shirt.

Also on the roof was Jeff and Tatiana. Jeff was praticing his golf swing, but sadly, lacked the driver to do so. He used a long, slim iron pipe instead. Jeff reminded Bryanne alot of Tatiana's father, even though she had never met him herself. Tatiana talked about him alot and of course, being her best friend, Bryanne listened. She had a distinct picture of him in her mind though, she didn't need to meet him.

He would look alot like Tatiana, with his Russian eyes and sharp French nose.

Bryanne's own parents just walked away from the hotel and she hadn't seen them again, but Tatiana's only parent was killed right before her eyes. Bryanne knew she needed to talk about him, she read somewhere that sometimes talking about a lost loved one made people feel better and helped their grief.

Tatiana didn't seem like one to grieve, but Bryanne didn't want to ask. She knew her friend's dad liked to golf alot and whenever Jeff came up to practice his swings, Tatiana seemed to be his shadow.

Tatiana was busy fumbling with an old polaroid camera she had found behind the lobby desk. It was old and dusty, but it had film in it and with a bit of tinkering, she knew it was going to work. Taking pictures at a time like this didn't seem so.. good. But it seemed to liven some of the guests up. Bryanne thought it was fun to say that they were guests becuase it just so happened that they were all stuck in the hotel. They all came up to Tatiana afterwords to see if she had it going yet.

Bryanne wrapped her arms around her knees as she brought them to her chest and she sighed ever so slightly. She always searched the horizon to try and see what hotels and casinos she could see. But there were many, as this was a vacation spot, and it was hard to see the names of them. Her family went to the Casino Jack but Bryanne saw no advertisements for it. It made her stomach turn into a big, tight knot be she tried to ignore it.

"Damn, man, " Jeff said, almost sadly, "I wish I had my clubs here!"

Tatiana simply laughed. "This is a vacation town! There are tons of golf courses here, why didn't you bring them along?"

"I was on a buisness trip, it wouldn't seem right to bring them," Jeff replied, turning away from the skyline to turn to tatiana. A sharp, bright flash momentarily blinded Bryanne and she shut her eyes and rubbed them. When she opened them, she saw Tatiana dancing in place. A few bright, rainbow spots danced in front of her eyes, but she could see that her friend was happy. A flap of thick white, shiny paper came out of the slot of the camera and the black, square shape on the paper was slowly turning from black to grey, shapes forming on it.

"I got it! The camera! It works!" Tatiana squeed happily. She jumped up and pulled Jeff over to Bryanne. With Jeff at her side and Tatiana at her other side, Tatiana took her first picture with the camera. The sheet of self-developing film came out of the mouth of the camera and Tatiana handled it carefully in her fingertips.

"We're special now, we got the first picture, eh?" Bryanne said, smiling. Tatiana nodded, jumping up and down.

"Now everyone is going to want a picture!" Tatiana replied, laughing. "Its okay. I think I saw a few more packages of film in one of the drawers of the desk."

Tatiana made her way towards the doorway leading back inside the hotel. Jeff turned to follow her as well, but he said to Bryanne, "Aren't you comming?"

Bryanne had been staring at the skyline for a moment, which was slowly taking over to a dark, night shade. She nodded slowly, thinking it was about time she get in and check in on Dylan and Amelie.

Antoinette could not sleep. Maybe it was a bit of insomnia, but what also added to it was the crying comming from the room next to hers. Natasha slept in that room. Natasha wasn't very outgoing and seemed so fragile, like if you talked to her she would break, if you would ask her to do a few chores, she would break. She wasn't dealing well at all with well... everything. But that didn't mean she could just pull herself out of the world and cry every second.

Antoinette pulled herself from her bed and walked carefully towards the door of her room. She could still her the baby cries comming from the room. She didn't know what to do. Go into the room and try to comfort her or would it be best to leave her alone? Antoinette didn't know, she was never a mother and she was an only child growing up.

Either way, Antoinette knew she couldn't sleep with her crying so she went downstairs in the dining room to make herself a cup of hot chocolate... and a cup for Natasha. Maybe it would make her feel better, she told herself. She hoped it would.

Shuffling down the dim, but somewhat genericly happy and comfortable hotel hallway wearing the free carpet slippers she found in the bathroom, Antoinette bumped on Natasha's door with her elbow, hands full with the mugs. She was getting kinda nervous and was thinking to just leave. _I mean, hey_, She thought, _I know nothing about kids! What can I possibly say to make her feel better?_

But then something else told her that this was a young girl she was dealing with, maybe 16 or 17 and she was scared. Antoinette was 23, she wasn't that much older than her... but still. This girl had no mother figure in her life right now and she didn't seem to want to try and get to know any of the other girls in the hotel, even though they were absolutely open. Maybe she just needed a friend to talk to and open up to.

In the middle of thinking, the door opened to reveal Natasha, looking like a puffy red, snotty and well... she looked like she needed a hug.

Her delicate, almost china doll features just seemed so lonely... and bright red and sore from crying. Her light, curly hair was unruly and seem unlivly and she looked like a lost puppy in the nightgown she wore. She looked suprised and tried to hide her face with her hand.

"Antoinette," She began, her voice crackling, "What are you doing here? Its late..."

Antoinette simply pushed the comfortably warm mug of hot chocolate in the girls pale hands and said, "I heard you crying. I thought a little warm drink and some good company would make you feel better."

Natasha seemed shocked to let Antoinette in her room, but she did none the less.

* * *

**Author's Note: **I am so sorry I haven't updated recently!!

Well, I had my surgery. It went amazingly well and it was just SO much better than last time. I am recovering beautifully and now with my limited time off, I'm going to try and update this more often.

Ciao!


	24. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down

**I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down**

"Tatiana, pick up those scraps and put them in the garbage please."

"You got it," Tatiana said wearily. She was absolutely full from dinner, sandwiches and cans of soup, she wasn't feeling all like herself, and she was very much ready to jump in her bed and see whatever was on the TV ( Disney movies once again... but hey, Dylan loved them even though he's seen most of them many times. Whatever it took to keep him happy) and sleep peacefully... But Amelie...

She was, needless to say, a bossy bitch. But you know... In a good way of course.

Tatiana picked up the scraps of letteuce and pushed the bread crumbs into her hand and dumped them into the half full garbage bag close to her. Bryanne was also in the kitchen and helping clean up so she wasn't alone, Bryanne was wiping down the countertops with a wet rag.

"You missed a spot," Amelie said, walking over and pointing with her veiny and wrinkled pale hand, "Right there."

"Yes," Bryanne huffily sighed. Bryanne was never so unwilling to help, but usually Rosita was never so uptight to keep things clean as the older woman was. If they missed a spot, Rosita would follow after them and pick it up without saying a word. Maybe it was the mother instinct in her and her sorrow for her children, but Amelie wouldn't baby them... Too much.

"I know you're getting upset but I run a tight ship and it dosen't pay to have a dirty kitchen girls. Whether at home... or well, here," Amelie said, her french accent making her words clipped and short in a harsh sort of way. She glanced around the kitchen and smiled at them. Her smile was very warm to them and all was well in a way. Amelie was like their Grandma, how could they say no to her?

"You can go now girls, you did good," The old Frenchwoman said, clapping them on the backs with a bit of difficulty since both Tatiana and Bryanne were both taller than her. Tatiana streched out her arms and yawned sleepily as the three women made their way out of the kitchen, Amelie turning off all the lights on in the room besides a smaller, less brighter one just in case someone came sneaking in there at night for a midnight snack of some sorts.

Antoinette was sitting at one of the tables in the dining room, reading a yellowed and tattered paperbook book labeled, "The Lover's Storm." It looked like one of those books that you would buy in a drugstore. Antoinette glanced up at Tatiana with her piercing green eyes. They softened when they landed on Tatiana and Antoinette set her book down face first onto the table, next to her coffee cup which was almost empty.

She patted the seat next to her and said, "Well, it looks like you've been working hard. Amelie being a slave driver again?"

"Hey," Amelie said from across the room, her french accent seeming thick. Antoinette giggled at the now cross old woman as Tatiana sat down. "Someone has to teach these young girls how to work in a kitchen! How do you think they shall take care of husbands?"

Tatiana rested her face into her hand propped up by her elbow. Antoinette cocked her head at an angle, gazing at Tatiana through her thick honey-blonde bangs. Antoinette contorted her face into a funny one, as if she was teasing a baby. Tatiana merely smiled.

"Talk to me!" Antoinette said, leaning back in her chair. "You never talk to me anymore. I'm left to fend for myself."

"Oh, I feel so bad for you," Tatiana said with a smirk. But shortly, she dropped the bare smile, her full pink mouth transformed into a thin line. "This place is like a cage. We're the animals. The zombies are the keepers."

"Hey now," Antoinette said, grabbing into Tatiana's hand. "That is far from the truth. We're are the hunters and they are the prey. We are the ones with the power, the guns! The bullets that are going to rip through their stupid little heads."

"That's not true..." Tatiana said glumly. "There is no power anymore... Only the hunger of flesh."

"Don't be so depressed, Tati. We are all suffering. Let's try to stay happy now," Antoinette said, with a small smile on her lips. Tatiana tried to smile back and agree, but it didn't feel right. "Okay?" Antoinette said, lifting her chin up with her fingers. Tatiana couldn't help smile then at her dark haired friend.

"Don't be so glum, there is your little friend," Antoinette said, lifting her thick but well groomed eyebrows and looking towards Eli who was comming into the dining area with a pajama clad Lexi. Tatiana smiled at them, feeling her spirits brighten just by seeing her friends. Antoinette elbowed her hard in the ribs.

"Don't you think he is just divine?" Antoinette said in a whisper, her eyes looking Eli up and down. Tatiana's eyes widened and she gasped lightly.

"Antoinette!"

"Don't act so shocked. I've seen you and him-"

"Are you joking? It is not like that!" Tatiana said a little louder, slapping Antoinette on the arm. Lexi came over and put her hands on her hips, looking at the two bickering girls.

"What's not like that?" Lexi asked playfully. Antoinette and Tatiana both glanced up at her without saying a word. "Oh come onn!"

Antoinette gathered her coffee cup and her book and began to sit up. "Hopefully I raised you mood just a bit my friend." She patted Tatiana on the head as if she were a dog and strutted her way towards the elevators.

"Goodnight," She purred to them, waving her fingers at them. Tatiana put her face in her hands. Lexi sat down where Antoinette was just sitting and grabbed onto Tatiana's wrists. "Tell me! Tell me!"

"It's nothing, I swear!" Tatiana said, pulling her wrists away from the other girl. "Truely!"

* * *

Taking the elevator to her floor and unlocking the door to her room, Tatiana threw herself onto her bed and wrapped herself around the thick blankets. Her room seemed to be more lived in now after her stay here. The tiny refidgerator in the room filled with waters and other drinks, her borrowed clothes in the dresser. The red sofa cushions were sunk in and had marks in them and on the coffee table, old magazines and old, yellowed books.

She just didn't feel so good today, just not herself. Maybe the depression of the situation was actually sinking in, but didn't it already? In the bathroom of the police station? Tatiana didn't know. She shuffled her feet against the pillowly comforter and he tried to settle herself... and then a thought came through her mind...

Sitting on a big, green grassy hill with her Dad on a starry, muggy night. Eating watermelon and watching a NASCAR race with him and just as their favorite driver cross the finish line, winning an important race, and fireworks going off at that precise moment as if their workers knew that this was the moment it should happen.

Tatiana sat there, staring up at the dark ceiling. Why would that particular thought come into her head? She had been thinking about her dad alot... ever since she had started talking to Eli. Faintly, she could still here a few people mingling to their bedrooms in the hallway.

Yes, Antoinette was right. The younger Holliday brother was fairly good looking and very sweet too... But love just wasn't important anymore. Not in a zombie filled battlezone they were now living in. She tossed a little bit and tried to settle herself into bed but sleep wouldn't come to her easily that night.

* * *

The swat truck was stuck in the middle of the road in front of the school and Anne was literally vibrating from the sound of the zombies smashing their fists against the reinforced metal sides. She pulled her knees closer to her chest and buried her face into her kneecaps, her thick butter blonde hair tickling at her legs. She couldn't stand to look out the windsheild anymore. Thank god the swat truck was bulletproof. The zombies... or whatever they were couldn't bust in.

With their milky white eyes and crusty, bloody purple and swollen limbs... This was all just a nightmare.

Things were just fine. Nothing was wrong. She was doing good in her classes, even honor roll and she had a great relationship with her boyfriend Jeremy... And then this happened. The teachers rushing the students into the cafeteria. But they couldn't stop it. The zombies were rushing at them from all directions, breaking windows, screaming and howling their hungry cries.

Everyone around her was crying, begging for their parents, praying. She had no idea what to do, everything just felt like their were in a movie. It was like she could pinch her arm and she would wake up with a cold sweat in her bed in the middle of the night. But it was really happening and she was paralyzed to the spot against the tan painted wall.

_She watched a female monster with tangled, straggley hair rip the throat out of one of the teacher's, blood squirting from the wound like it was from a squirt gun. She watched a girl she knew from her French class run into the room a massive, muscley wound on her theigh. She was screaming for help. One of the other teachers was screaming into her cell phone for help. _

_Her private school was no longer private with the flesh hungry invaders. She slid down the wall as the teachers pushed the monsters back with the doors and locked them. They were all beaten, bloody, and battered. "Don't panic! The p-police are on their way!" The headmistress said, her grey streaked black hair coming loose from the tight bun she wore, her pant suit ripped at the knees, blood oozing at the tears._

_Anne had felt stinging hot tears prickling at her eyes and she tried to will them away but they spilled from her full eyes and soaked down her cheeks. Girls around her were sobbing and the ones who were bloody and hurt were screaming and crying._

_"It won't stop bleeding!"_

_"Didn't you call 911?" "The line was busy!"_

_"Please god..."_

_"I don't feel so good..."_

_She wanted her mom and dad. Right now. She didn't care that she was 15 and practically an adult, living on her own in a private school. She wanted her mom with her long hair, similar to hers, and her classy jewlery and flowery perfume. She wanted her dad with his enermous biceps that always stuck out taut against his expensive buisness suits and his serious brown almost black eyes telling them all what to do. She began to slowly sob, the crying shaking her entire body to it's core._

_Her mom and dad weren't coming. She knew that for sure._

_The room was filled with the sound of screaming, shouting, crying, and the bangs of fists against the metal doors of the cafeteria. She felt absolutely repulsed as she looked at them through the windows. They were looking right back at her too, her and her peers. What did they want? What was wrong with them?_

_A strangled scream broke her thoughts. One of the teachers in the middle of the room fell to her knees and was clutching at her throat, like she couldn't breath. Then she reached for her stomach, which soaked with blood._

_"Someone help her!" An older red haired student cried, running at the teacher, pulling off her school jacket and pressing it to the teacher's stomach. The teacher was a woman with big gaudy earrings and fancy make-up, her hair styled into the latest fashions. The teacher fell into the older girl's lap, gasping for air._

_"Please!" The older student cried. Anne stood up to get a better look. The girl's jacket which was pressed against the teacher's stomach was already soaked with blood with pink, muscle bits attached to it. Anne took a closer look and saw that the teacher had stopped moving._

_"I think she's dead..." Anne said, looking at the older girl. The older girl looked up at Anne and then back at the teacher. She pulled the blood soaked jacket away from her stomach and revealed a muscley hole filled with intestines and dark organs. The older girl began to gag but then, as she was about to push the repulsive teacher away from her, the teacher's eyes snapped open._

_Her eyes were white and bloodshot._

_The teacher hissed and moaned painfully, her arms reaching up for the older girl like she was a baby and the older girl was her mother. But then it turned out all wrong. All wrong._

_The teacher lunged at the older girl's neck and ripped long, muscley sinews from the girl's neck, blood oozing out like gel. The older girl shrieked and some teacher's ran to restrain the teacher and grab her off the girl but it was too late. The teacher then lunged at the other teachers who were trying to restrain them. The older girl who was bitten collapsed on the floor, clutching her neck and screaming._

_"We're doomed..." A girl next to Anne said._

_Anne just glanced at the girl slowly. Then the climax of the movie..._

_A pack of the teachers rushed at the girl and started ripping her student jacket and blouse off with their bloody teeth and fingers. Anne crawled away from them on her hands and knees, hearing the girls screams from behind her and the sound of wet muscles and blood being smacked against lips. She was shaking from head to toe, looking around the room for someone. Anyone to help her._

_Everyone seemed to be in a state of panic as well, the teachers trying to students away from attacking each other and they were getting bitten in the process. It seemed everyone was getting mauled to death-_

_Anne felt something grab her right shoe and start dragging her. She looked behind her, her hair flying into her face. One of the teachers was grabbing her foot, trying to drag her into his clutches and rip her to shreds. His lip was split down the middle and bits of his skull was visable, his once grey hair clotted with blood and turned pink. His eyes were haunted and dead white, almost like snow. But not pure._

_Anne screamed and felt her heart beating like a boxer hitting a punching bag against her chest. She began to crawl away but the once teacher had a strong grip on her foot and as she struggled to crawl away, he pulled her ever so slowly back into his grip. She could hear his frustrated and hungry moans behind even through the chaos of the room. Anne knew she was doomed, just as the girl said. She was going to die._

_There was nothing to grab onto and no one here to save her. She kicked at the monster with her left shoe clad foot and hit him straight in the face with her sole. His face was squishy and soft like jello and one of his eyes even flopped out of the socket but he wasn't letting go. Anne kept kicking at him and kicking at him, trying to crawl away in the process._

_The zombie let go in frustration and Anne scrambled to her knees and then to her feet, looking back at the monster who almost had the chance to rip her to shreds. Then she felt someone grab her shoulders and pull her in the other direction. She screamed and fought before she could look, trying to rip her wrist away from the solid iron grip but it was relentless. She looked up at her captor and was suprised to see her history teacher, Mr. Hardy._

_"What the hell is going on!?" She shrieked at him as he pulled her across the room. Anne had never in her life sworn in front of a teacher but it wasn't like it mattered anymore anyways. People were dying in this school, for sure it would be shut down... If anyone could live to tell the tale._

_Mr. Hardy made a bee line towards the girl's restroom, Anne trailing behind him like a lost puppy as all hell broke loose around them._

_Blood covered the floor like a freshly fallen snow and bodies were thrown about like rag dolls. The monsters chewing at the helpless students and remaining teachers were like hyper dogs gnawing at a chew toy or lions ripping apart their prey._

_Mr. Hardy pushed open the bathroom door with such force it smacked loudly against the wall behind it. He pushed Anne inside in front of him and quickly closed the door behind him and then he locked the door. Just as he did so, loud, sharp bursts of noise filled the rooms as the monsters began to beat against the door, which was made of wood with metal hinges and locks._

_"It's sturdy, it will hold for just long enough," Mr. Hardy thought out loud. There were 7 other girls in the room with them along with 2 other teachers, both girls._

_Mr. Hardy was a tall and lean younger looking man, with boyish tan features which were tarnished with sweat and wet, sloppy blood. The two other teachers Anne recognized as a geometry teacher and a gym teacher. The gym teacher was dressed in a pair of sweats in the schools colors, blue and yellow, and her jet black hair was in a messy, frizzy ponytail. It looked as if someone had pulled it. The geometry teacher wore a dark pink skirt with matching high heels and a lighter pink blouse that was stained with crimson blood. Her older, made up features were stricken with disgust and fear._

_The 7 other students in the pink themed bathroom were all varied from ages. There seemed to be more freshmen and sophmores then seniors but they all could relate to the looks on their faces. They were all absolutely horrified. The sound of the monsters trying to break into the bathroom rattled and echoed off the walls._

_"How... H-how are we going to get out of here?" The geometry teacher said, crossing and re-crossing her arms across her chest. There were lines of eyeliner and mascara running down her pale cheeks. Mr. Hardy paced the small area of the crowded bathroom that he could. Yes. How were they going to get out of here? Where the hell were the police? Didn't they know there were some strange mutant freaks running around killing innocent students and their teachers?_

_Wasn't any parent calling their child at their dorm room, wondering why their daughter wasn't awnsering? Wouldn't they be worried?_

_Anne would think so at least. Well, actually. She didn't know what to think. Did hell come to earth? Was it Judgement Day or whatever they called it? Anne's parents had never forced religion on her and they themselves weren't too religious anyways. Maybe now was a good day to get down on her knees and start praying to god to forgive her for whatever she did._

_"I... don't know," Mr. Hardy said, pacing with his hands placed on his hips, looking down around the room. There were no windows to bust open and escape out of. There was no other doors to run out of either._

_Mr. Hardy's eyes meneuvered around the room. They looked at the 3 bathroom stalls in the room, the sink, the smoggy mirror, the tampon machine, the garbage can. Then the ceiling. The hazel orbs stopped at the ceiling._

_"There. We go through there," He said, taking a hand from his hip and pointing upwards. He pointed to the metal grate screwed into the ceiling that led into the air vents most likely._

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hey everybody! I hope you enjoyed this and the last chapter. I know I know! I'm doing it AGAIN. I'm adding MORE characters! But I thought this was a good way to add some action and more excitement to the story. :)

Now now, I think we can get up to 35 reviews. Yesss? Did you enjoy it? Did you have some criticism? Did you want to tell me how much you adore a character? Well come on, don't be shy. TELL ME. ;D


	25. When I Look Back On All The Misery

**When I Look Back On All The Misery**

_"Roman! Listen to me!"_

_"No! I hate you! I fucking hate you! I hate your fucking guts! I want to shoot myself to get you out of my head!"_

_"I'm sorry!"_

_"Get the fuck away from me!"_

_"I'm sorry! I snapped! I didn't mean it, I love you!"_

_"No. Get the fuck away from me. I hate you. I hate your voice, I hate you guts, I fucking hate you. More than anything. Get away from me!"_

_"Listen to me!"_

_Mama cut in._

_"Roman we love you!"_

_"I hate you! No! Leave me alone!"_

_Eli was scared stiff, his stomach rolling and rolling and rolling. Tears were streaming down his Dad's face. He had seen Daddy crying so much lately... Because of Brother... He had only seen Dad crying when Grandpa died. Sure, Daddy had cried. But he had really cried when Grandpa died. He was really crying now._

_Roman was Eli's rolemodel at one point in his life but slowly it had all faded away in his young life, only 12 short years. Roman used to play football with him and Daddy every Sunday but now, of course he didn't. He only cared about talking to his best friend John and his girlfriend Jessie. Roman used to kick around the soccer ball with Eli in the spring time too but now it was all about smoking nasty smelling ciggerettes and begging people to buy him booze._

_What had happened?_

_Earlier this summer, Roman told Daddy he was joining the football team again and Daddy was absolutely ecstatic. He handed over the $30 for the athletic fees but when Daddy drove up to the high school football field in his black pick up with his thermos full of beer, he got out of his truck and had scanned the field. Roman wasn't even there._

_They found out later Roman used it for hanging out with his friends instead of playing football. He stole from Daddy._

_Eli sat with his arms wrapped around his knees as he heard the commotion from the next room. Tears soaked through the blue flannel of his pajamas and he hated it. His brother shouldn't be making Daddy cry. No one should. Roman shouldn't be making his 12 year old brother cry either. At least Lexi was over at Nicole's house... She didn't need anymore of this. She blamed herself for everything that was happened and Roman was 4 and a half years older than her._

_Roman had even smoked pot in front of him before and he just didn't care. He didn't care about anyone._

_He had provoked Daddy, begging Daddy to punch him in his face. And Daddy did. Daddy threw him against the wall and started beating on him. But Eli knew that he wasn't a bad person for doing it. It had to be done. Roman deserved it. He had even stolen $50 out of Mama's white leather purse. Roman sat and cried, too high out of his mind to even remember that her provoked Daddy. He thought Daddy was a monster._

_"I didn't mean it! You make me so mad! So frustrated sometimes. Listen to me!"_

_"I Hate-_

Eli awoke with a start in his bed, sweat covering his entire body. His large t-shirt clung to his body like saran wrap. He sat up in his bed, using the moonlight as a guide to see Mama and Lexi sleeping in the bed next to his. He hadn't thought about those times in a while. He didn't like to think about them, especially now that Roman was dead.

Daddy died 2 years later. He was only 47 too, he died of liver failure and Daddy didn't even drink that much. Maybe it was just all the stress Roman had put on him through the years.

A few weeks after that fight, Roman moved away and lived with a friend up until the day Daddy had died. With their father's passing, it seemed to have changed Roman. He never smoked pot again, he only chain smoked cheap ciggerettes and he really did clean up his act and got a job working daytime at the post office in town and at night at the local bar as bartender, all to take care of them.

But Eli knew he was always there for his father, same with Lexi too. Roman dropped out of school because all of his friends were doing it. He was a varsity star linebacker and the best goalie their town had ever seen and he gave it all up because of peer pressure. Eli joined all the extra ciricular activites he could at school to make Daddy proud. Football, soccer, the video club, the German club (he was the vice-president too), and the school's student council. He brought home good grades and so did Lexi. He could remember Daddy always looking so proud when him and Lexi's report cards turned up in the mailbox.

"I'm so glad I have you two," He would always say, pulling them into a large bear hug. Eli shifted uncomfortably in his bed, the comforter sticking to his bare, sweaty legs. It was werid thinking about Daddy... Sometimes, he even forgot the sound of his voice and the way his sandy hair would look when he would get it cut. Eli pulled himself out of his bed, making careful steps to avoid anyone waking up, and he walked over to the balcony, looking through the glass at the ground below.

There were trash from garbage cans floating through the air like flower petals floating through a warm, playful gust of wind. Stray newspaper ads, fast food bags and lunch bags. There were a few abandoned cars too. Some with their doors wide open and he could even see his family's fan too. There were a few zombies roaming around below, moaning hungrily at him. They were looking slower everyday and Eli was sure that was a good thing. Maybe they would even shrivel up and turn into dust and then everything would be okay.

Him, Mama, and Lexi could take their van back to their whitewash house and move back in and fix up the farm. They could buy new animals because by now, their various chickens, cows, and goats must be dead from the lack of food and they could return to their normal lives. He could picture the mantel above the ashy fireplace with various pictures of the family.

Eli's heart ached miserably inside his chest. He opened up the balcony door and stepped out into the cool night, his bare feet chilling against the tile of the balcony. The night was beautiful and every star in the sky was visable. It would have been perfect if it would have been from the view of his window at home...

He glanced to his right and to his suprise, he saw someone else sitting on their balcony as well. It was Tatiana.

She didn't seem to notice him, which was a good thing. Maybe she would think he was spying on her and that was definately not a good thing. Eli didn't want to seem stalkerish. Tatiana was beautiful, anyone could see that. Her honey hair blew around her like a halo or like something you would see in a picture of greek gods. She leaned against the balcony railing, glancing up at the stars.

Tatiana had her head cocked in a beautifully thoughtful way. She was stargazing. Eli coughed slightly and he awoke Tatiana from her peaceful state. She looked at him, startled and then she smiled. She pointed up to the sky, smiling as if this was a secret they alone knew and no one else could experience. Eli forgot all of the details of his nightmare and thought only of the starlit sky and the beauty of the girl.

* * *

Celie sat in the passenger seat of the SWAT truck, next to the girl named Anne and the two other girls who had survived, Elena and Camille, were sitting on the floor in the back of the truck. Celie couldn't believe what was going on around her. Monsters were beating the truck alive with their bloody, pulpy fists and she was trapped inside with people she didn't even know. The sky was dark and the pink watch on her wrist read 12:55am. 

She had seen people being eaten alive, right in front of her face. People dying right in front of her face. This was her worst nightmare come true but ten million times worse.

Her best friend Jennifer had been ripped limb from limb, literally, in front of her eyes. The horrid memory past through her skull again and again, like the worst horror movie put on replay.

Celie pulled down the sunvisor and looked at herself on the tiny mirror that was attached to it. Her deep chocolate skin had spots and splatters of dried blood against it, making her stomach churn in absolute disgust. Her usually sleak, voluminous hair was lank and her celery green eyes were almost like those monsters. Dead. Her skin was greasy from sweat and dirt.

She had her cell phone in her pocket, but her parents hadn't called once. Not a single time. Celie was terrified to think about her parent's safety... She had tried calling them but she only got their awnsering machine and their cell phone's voicemails.

Faintly, she could hear one of the girls softly sobbing in the back. None of them had said much for the entire 5 hours and 25 minutes they had been stuck in the truck. She knew they were all hungry and they had all shared a thermos of dingy tasting water but that was about it. Celie's stomach grumbled uncomfortably and she glanced around at the other girls. It was embarassing but what did it matter anymore? They were going to die.

_Mr. Hardy upturned the garbage can next to the sink and brown paper towels spilled out. The gym teacher held it carefully as he, using the side of one of the bathroom stalls, climbed on top of it. The garbage can, made of some kind of stiff plastic, wobbled dangerously under him. Sweat dripped down Mr. Hardy's face as he shoved his fingers into the grate and tugged. Nothing happened. He tugged one more time, letting out a grunt of frustration, but once again nothing happened._

_"It's screwed in place... Does anyone have anything? Like a pen?" He asked, his voice filled with determination. He as well as all of them knew they had to get out of there or else they were serious toast. Celie had stood uncomfortably against the wall, her arms shoved deeply into the pockets of her school jacket._

_Her mind was only filled of Jennifer. Mr. Hardy had tried to pull the monster off of her but it was no use. His teeth were deep in her Meixcan skin and nothing would be taking it back._

_"Yeah...," The gym teacher said, "Yeah. I have some keys. Will those work?" _

_She started to fish around in her sweatpant pockets for her ring of keys and Mr. Hardy replied, "Yeah, sure." The gym teacher, Celie thought her name was Ms. Curry or something, pulled her ring of keys out of her pocket and placed them in Mr. Hardy's sweaty outstreched hand. Though it was obscured from their view, everyone in the room could hear Mr. Hardy trying to fit various keys into the slot of the one of the screws to act as a makeshift screwdriver._

_The sound of the hungry monsters still filled the room. There seemed to be more of them rushing around at the door, trying to get at them. The sound was growing louder and louder with moans, fists punching at the wall, and nails scraping against the wood of the door._

_The sound of the first screw falling out of the grate was barely heard against the sound of the angry monsters. "It's working? Yes! It's working!"_

_"But what if the air shafts are too small?" The geometry teacher said, looking at Mr. Hardy and Ms. Curry like they were mad. She kept crossing and re-crossing her arms across her chest nervously. Again. Again. And again._

_"It will work. It has to work," Mr. Hardy said, his voice small but grim. He started at another screw..._

Softly, big fat rain drops began to splatter down on the windsheild, dotting the open areas of glass but otherwise hitting the monsters trying to get at them. Celie turned around in her seat and could make out one of the girls, Elena, sleeping on the metal ground flooring of the truck, her midnight hair spread around her. The other girl, Camille, was sitting on one of the benches attached to a wall in the back, her knees pulled up to her chin. She could see thick tracks of moisture running down her pale cheeks.

The girl sitting in the driver's seat, Anne, was staring off out the window, her face pressed against the glass. No one dared speak. They just let the sound of the monsters outside fill the hollow truck.

Celie once again looked into the back of the truck. There were vests (bulletproof she was guessing) hanging on hooks on the walls and on the shelf above them were masks with big, thick tinted visors on them and there were boxes up there as well and even a few large, boxy black walkie talkies. The scariest thing was the guns hanging on the walls by the straps that were attached to them. They were rifles.

Celie had never seen an actual gun before.

The CB in the truck crackled to life and filled the truck with white noise. Everyone looked at it, expecting something. In the last few hours the machine had crackled to life and they had heard some sounds of life from it. One was a man's voice, shouting something into it but they couldn't understand a thing he said, the CB breaking up too much. Then the other time there was just screaming and the sound of gunfire.

The girls all waited paciently as a large streak of white lightning flashed across the dark night.

_Once all of the screws attaching the grate to the ceiling had sprinkled onto the ground, Mr. Hardy tossed it onto the ground and pulled himself up more to look inside. It looked very dark inside. Celie glanced at the other girls in the room as this happened. One was sobbing into the sleeve of her student jacket but the rest seemed somehow solemn._

_They all looked older. Maybe they thought that in their few, maybe 15 or 19 years of life that they had seen something. But nothing could be worse than seeing people die. The splatter of blood. Death can really change people and then being hunted? You couldn't just break down. You either stay strong and try to survive... or you could give up and be killed._

_But why? Why was this happening? What was causing it?_

_"Okay. Mrs. Fonda, I think you should go up first. First we get an adult in and then the girls will go in next, then Ms. Curry, then myself. We keep crawling until we can't anymore or at least until we can find an empty, secure class room. No people running around," Mr. Hardy said, jumping down from the overturned garbage can._

_Sweat stains slowly stained the fabric underneath his armpits and the back of his shirt, Celie noticed. She was really scared of cramped, closed in places and she could feel herself starting to breath a bit faster as Mrs. Fonda, the geometry teacher, climbed up onto the garbage can, teetering and tottering on her high heels. No one complained. No one else was trying to make plans to get them out of here, no one else volunteered to be the leader, no one else had a better idea._

_She grunted as she pulled herself up into the shaft. Her top half was somewhat pulled into the shaft and Ms. Curry and Mr. Hardy had to help push her legs along with her before she finally struggled inside. "It's really dark in here but I can see some light up ahead. It's not too cramped. Send someone else up," Her voice shakily echoed all around the room._

_Ms. Curry nodded to the girl who was sobbing into her jacket sleeves. She had shoulder length brown hair and wide, scared matching brown eyes. She shook her head very fast and backed up against another girl. "No. No. I don't... Think I can..."_

_"You have to. You have no choice," Ms. Curry said, trying her best to be soothing. Celie knew this single woman couldn't be soothing if she tried, even in a situation like this. She mercilessly made them run laps around the track in 100 degree heat and didn't even let them have water breaks. What did she care if this girl stayed here and died or crawled into the shaft and died? Celie felt bad for her almost. She felt bad for all of them. Celie put her hand on the girl's shaking shoulder._

_Celie could feel with her. She didn't want to either. She thought of the things out there, the things that had killed Jen... Her parents..._

_"I can't..." She said again, her voice very mousy and small._

_"You have to!" Ms. Curry said, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her towards the garbage can. The girl burst into tears again as Ms. Curry forced her on the garbage can. Everyone looked on, horrified as she feebly pulled herself up into the shaft, Ms. Curry pushing her legs in along with her. Her sobs echoed around the room like Mrs. Fonda's had._

_One by one, the girls pulled themselves into the shaft and the sound of them shuffling themselves around the shaft filled the room. And then she was the last one left to go up besides Mr. Hardy and Ms. Curry._

_"Keep moving. There are those things in that classroom. Come on guys, d-don't give up," She could hear Mrs. Fonda call to the other girls in the shaft with her. Celie could feel her fingers slowly start to shake and then the shaking went up into her hands and then her arms._

_Mr. Hardy outstreched his hand to her. "Up you go."_

_Celie could feel tears prickling at her eyes and could slowly feel her chest tightening. Reluctantly, she put her brown hand in Mr. Hardy's pale clamy one. He helped her onto the garbage can and the can below her wobbled beneath her feet making her already queasy stomach churn. She was now starting to realize how serious the situation was._

_She had saw her friend die. She had seen classmates and teachers die. She was stuck in this tiny bathroom about to crawl into a tiny claustrophobic air shaft with insane crazy monsters banging at the door trying to kill her and eat her alive. It seemed like no help was comming._

_Celie felt like vomiting even though she had nothing in her stomach to vomit._

_Celie grabbed onto the harsh cold metal of the air shaft and began to pull herself up. She was on the school's basketball team but she still had no upper body strength. She could barely pull herself into the air shaft, Mr. Hardy had to push her legs in along with her. All around her was darkness and all kinds of noises filled her ears._

_The sound of creaking metal, the sound of the other girls' knees shuffling against the metal, the sound of the monsters still going crazy at the door... the sound of the monsters going crazy in other rooms of the school. Celie could make out the shape of the girl in front of her, but just barely. The air shaft was small and cramped and her back and head bumped at the top of the shaft. Behind her, she could hear Ms. Curry pulling herself into the shaft._

_"This room is empty!" Mrs. Fonda breathlessly from ahead. It was terribly hot in the shaft, or maybe it was just her. Celie could then hear Mrs. Fonda banging on the metal with something, most likely her fists. and the slow moving line of girl's stopped. She could hear the metal of the air shaft creaking beneath all of their weight and the sounds of fans blowing somewhere close to them. She could feel the metal also against her shoulders._

_Mrs. Fonda hissed softly but kept banging at the grate, Celie guessed. She then heard the grate crash to the ground and then Celie heard some of the girls crawling out of the shaft and plopping on the ground. The line kept moving until it was her being helped out of the shaft by Mrs. Fonda, whose fists were bleeding and some of the older girls._

_They were inside of an empty classroom, the room was dark and the only light in the room came from the window on the other side of the room. Everything was eeriely quiet besides the hushed voices of the teachers and the soft sobbing of the girl from before. Mr. Hardy strode over to the door of the room and made sure it was locked and he took a peek through the small window._

_"Are there..." Mrs. Fonda began to ask, but Mr. Hardy shook his head._

_"No. No one," Mr. Hardy replied, walking back to them. Celie glanced around at the strange group of them all. Most of the girls were fairly composed, through a few were looking aroundly wildly at the window and the door as if at any second they were going to bust and those crazy ass monsters were going to fly at them and kill them._

_Well... It could happen._

_The one girl who Ms. Curry yelled at before had big, puffy red eyes and blotchy red skin and she looked absolutely horrified and she held herself with her arms. Celie felt bad for her but almost not. They were all scared. They were all in danger, it wasn't like she was the only one._

_Mrs. Fonda was looking at her swollen fists, which were red and bloody and Ms. Curry was over by the teacher's desk, trying to get on the computer. As she tried to gain access to the internet, she lifted the phone on the desk up to her ear and she began to click the buttons on the phone. Mr. Hardy walked up to her, looking almost hopeful, but Ms. Curry shook her head. _

_"Nothing. 911 is busy...," She said, her voice letting off that she was angry, "How can that even be possible!?"_

_She slamed the phone down on the desk, the noise echoing across the room and she began to click nervously at the computer. A few of the senior girls walked over to the window and they gasped. One started shaking her blonde head and the other had tears running down her cheeks. "What are they?" She whispered helplessly. Celie felt a feeling of absolute dread fill her stomach as she and the other girls walked towards the window to get a peek at what was scaring them so much._

_When they finally got a look, they didn't need to see anymore. _

_Those monsters... They were everywhere._

_There were cars and trucks and yellow school buses totally stopped and deserted in the middle of the street and the street lights were still going as if it was any normal day, as if the cars weren't stopped dead. Some cars were crashed into others and some had flames comming out of them. The only things that were moving were the monsters, the zombies._

_Men and women, old and young, black and white and Spanish and Asian. They were all walking around in a daze, stumbling with their hands out in front of them. They all walked around as if they were drunk or stoned or something. It was very bazaar. The town of Lakehurst never looked so dead before. It was a rich person's retreat from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood, with their quiet little estates surrounded by pine trees and the various designer stores and coffee shops._

_But now everyone was reduced to being strung out monsters. Celie reached for her phone and again and drunkly punched in the numbers to her parent's home. Yes, they were fairly well off. They owned their own estate a few miles outside of Lakehurst and they had their own man made pond on it and trails to go ATVing on. Surely they were safe on their 1000 or so acre estate? Maybe those monsters hadn't reached them yet!_

_She had tried calling before but maybe her parents had been sleeping in their large French style bed. They probally had no idea that anything was terribly, terribly wrong and that their daughter was in danger. But still, the phone just rang and rang until it went to their automatic awnsering machine._

_"Lydia, Joe, take a look at this..." Ms. Curry said, her voice drained of all emotion. Mr. Hardy and Mrs. Fonda walked over to the desk and leaned down to look at the computer screen. Their faces were glowing blue from the computer screen as they read on, the students just watching them. They were the teachers, they were the ones in control. Always. They were the ones that were supposed to have everything in order and to have a plan._

_"Canibal monsters have taken over Americas... Slowly spreading to other continents... Hungry for warm flesh and human blood," Ms. Curry read off in her very mannish voice. As the other girl's heard those words from the article the teachers must have been reading, they began to panic._

_"What? You must be lying..." One said. The one who was crying fell to her knees and continued sobbing, but only louder this time. Some of the others rummaged through their student jackets and pulled out cell phones and tried to call family but all to nothing. No one awnsered. The police line was busy. Was everyone gone? Was everyone dead?_

_Celie closed her eyes and fell back against the wall, Ms. Curry still reciting from the page. Mrs. Fonda had been reduced to tears. "Most city run police forces have been reduced to nothing. Most have been bitten by the monsters for they knew not what they were up against. Military forces have been going across the country with heavy artillary and tanks and high in numbers to forts and bases in each state to make make-shift hospitals and shelter."_

_Celie brought her warm brown hand to her eyes as tears began to spill from her closed lids. The warm salty tears tickled at her face as they trickled down her cheeks as if toying with her. They said, "You have no more parents and now look at you. You're going to die! Ha ha!"_

_"The Government advises to find one of these forts as the military will be there, armed, and they will under any circumstances protect you. If this is not an option to you, stay in your home and lock the doors. Under no circumstances let any of the infected into your home. They are not your friends anymore. They will kill you and once you are bitten, you will turn into one yourself. A gunshot wound or any wound to the head will stop them."_

_Celie wiped her cheeks with her student jacket to ebb to flow of sticky tears. So a blow to the head would kill them... But where in a school would you find a weapon of any sort?_

_"Scientists are not sure why or how this outbreak of canibals has come about but they are sure that if you are bitten or have a cut and it comes in contact with the infected blood, you will turn into one of them. It can take up to 15 minutes or even days at the most. The best way to not become one of them is to avoid them at all costs."_

Celie leaned her head against the cool window and sighed. She didn't want to think about this anymore. It was impossible not to think about it but she wanted to shut her mind down and go into a coma of sorts. She wanted to see but not really see, hear but not really hear, act but not really act. Life as she knew it was over.

The teachers and the students had then devised a plan of making it out of the school and stealing a few of the cars outside and then using them to drive to the fort listed close to them, The Hospital Of San Bernadino, and they did make it outside without any of the monsters following them but then it all fell apart.

Once the monsters had saw them, they sprinted at them at full force. Celie had ran for her life towards the SWAT truck and watched as Ms. Curry was gutted on the ground, as Mrs. Fonda tried to race back into the building to escape them but a mob of them chased her down the hallways. They were faster and stronger than they were. Celie made it into the truck somehow with the other remaining girls behind them. They had slammed the door shut and that was that.

They had been here ever since, with all of the monsters around them, drooling for their hot flesh.

The CB continued to crackle and hissand faintly, Celie could make out words. She picked up the mic and began to speak into it. She screamed for help and gave whoever was out there and whoever was listening the name of the city of where they were, that they were school girls trapped and about to die of either hunger or by being mauled to death by the zombies. They needed help. Urgently. They couldn't just sit here and die.

Celie could almost see herself loading those guns up, putting on one of the masks over her head and one of the bullet proof vests on and weilding one of the big rifles, almost like an African-American warrior. But she knew they would just rush at her and she didn't even know how to use a gun anyways.

Her African-American warrior dream was just that. A dream. She couldn't save them. Someone else had to. She would just sit here with her head against the window while the zombies punched and battered at the unbreaking glass, listening to the soft sobbing from the back.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Good evening everyone. First, I'd like to give a shout out to Jackpot7374 for his review and such good praise. Thanks! People like you really make me motivated to continue and write. :)

Wow. This is a pretty long chapter. I'm back from my time off of school for surgery so now I'm back at school and so updates will be comming a little less often but I will try to write as much as I can and update as much as I can. I am definately not going to leave this story out in the dust.

Until next time.


	26. Fight Or Flight

**Fight Or Flight**

Tatiana was awoken by the phone ringing noisely on her bedside table. She had just gotten into bed after looking at the stars on the balcony (oh, don't forget gazing at Eli, too.) and she was just snuggling into her warm comforter when it started ringing. The electric clock on the table next to the phone read 1:10 am. 

Groggily, she lifted the phone off the hook and up to her ear. "'Lo?"

"Hey. Hotel meeting in the lobby In 5 minutes," Rosita's voice came through the other end. Before Tatiana could think of anything to say, Rosita hung up. The Spanish woman's voice rung through Tatiana's ears. Tatiana set the phone down back onto the cradle and she sat up in her bed. She rubbed at her eyes for a moment, stalling. She wondered what it could be...

Maybe one of the metal sheets attached to the windows had somehow come loose and maybe there were zombies running around the lobby? _No,_ she told herself smartly. _I would probally hear gunshots or something. Maybe a little screaming too. _She needed a reason to be getting out of bed at 1 in the morrning. A logical reason.

Maybe something was wrong with Amelie... Or Dylan. _Okay, freak, stop thinking and just get your ass out of bed._

Tatiana pulled on one of her sweatshirts over the tank top she was wearing and slipped on a pair of generic fluffy hotel slippers over her chilly feet and she headed out into the hallway, towards the elevator.

When she arrived downstairs with pajama clad Lexi and Bryanne in tow, she spotted Rosita sitting at the front desk with the black, dusty CB in front of her crackling with white noise. On her right side was Jimmy and on her left side was Amelie wearing a light pink nightgown. She looked almost like an aged fairy. The queen of the fairies.

Tatiana, Lexi, and Bryanne solemnly pulled up chairs as the rest of the group groggily appeared. When everone was present, Rosita started to explain the situation.

"A few minutes ago a girl radioed in on the CB" - Something that hadn't happened in a while. Slowly, some of the correspondence they had made with survivors around California had basically died out. The CB hadn't roared to life in a long time. "She is a 16 year old student at a school in Lakehurst, about 30 or 40 minutes away from here. She is trapped in a truck with 3 other girls and well... They are basically trapped."

Tatiana listened on with interest and horror. She couldn't imagine herself being 16 years old, by herself basically with 3 girls probally younger than her that are crying and scared with insane flesh eating zombies running around. She couldn't imagine it at all. She felt absolutely scared for them and her stomach dropped as Rosita continued.

"They haven't seen anyone to help them, they think the town is deserted. No help is comming. I think... we should help them. Rescue them," Rosita concluded her, her maternal instincts kicking in at the end. Her brown hands clasped together nervously, expectantly.

Everyone was silent, maybe contemplating all of this.

"40 minutes away?" Scott said, his thick strong fingers running through his dark beard. Rosita nodded her head.

"I don't know... What if something happened to us? What if the truck broke down?" Scott replied, his thick brows furrowing. Tatiana kept silent, just like the others. She felt that they needed to rescue these girls like Rosita felt... but then Scott continued his arguement, which made another part of her mind agree with him.

"What if one of us gets bitten? I don't think we can risk it..." Scott continued. Rosita looked at him as if he was insane.

"What are you saying Scott?" Rosita said, sounding disgusted. Her cheeks began to flare. "Are we going to let 4 young girls just sit and die out there?"

"No, I'm not. But between that 40 minutes, something could happen. Either to us or to them. What if they are already dead when we get there?" He said, his tone still calm but his words sharp.

"I don't know! We can't just let them sit and die. We can't just not try," Rosita said, glaring at him. Tatiana agreed with both sides but she felt ashamed. Rosita was right, they couldn't just let those innocent girls die without trying to help save them. But on the other hand, they couldn't risk it. In that 40 minutes they took to drive there, what if one of them got bitten and turned into one of the zombies? And then they use alot of their ammo? And then they arrive to find the girls are dead?

It couldn't work.

"I agree with Scott," Alex chimed in. His arms were crossed against his chest, a serious expression on his features. Tatiana couldn't believe him as she stared at his defiant face but she couldn't believe herself as half of her agreed with him.

"I think we should do it." Bryanne said, her reasoning, girlish drawl calming the hot tones of Rosita and Scott. They both glanced at her, forgetting their heated debate for just a moment. Bryanne had a way of doing that to people.

"We are running low on supplies and food," She said, pulling her knees up onto her chair and under her chin, "We're all sharing clothes and we barely have enough. I think that along the way we could find a walmart or a sam's club or something. Maybe even a gun store. We could replenish all of our supplies while going to look for those girls!"

Rosita and Scott both glanced at her as if they were just looking at her in a new light. They looked as if gears were hard at work in their heads, looking over Bryanne's plan in their minds. Tatiana glanced at her friend, with her messy curly white-blonde hair surrounding her head like an afro. She looked up at Tatiana and smiled goofily. Bryanne seemed like a goofy, fun girl but she was smart. She was more deep than she appeared.

"I think... that would work," Rosita said, tapping a long nail on her chin. She slowly glanced at Scott and he gruffly nodded and crossed his arms across his chest similarly to Alex before standing up.

"Okay, we have work to do."

* * *

Tatiana sat on her bed, pulling her running shoes onto her feet. Instead of being pajama clad this time, she was dressed in a pair of jeans and a the teal colored sweatshirt she had worn the day she had seen her Dad die. She felt a little shiver as she thought of the sweatshirt as "the sweatshirt she had worn when her father died." Sure, she would always remember it this way but the blood had all washed away in the washer. Somewhere, deep in the soft cotten fibers, little bits of memory was stored there. She knew it.

They had split the group up into 3 parties: The party going for the girls, the party going to the nearest department store, and the party staying at the hotel waiting.

Using the computer at the front desk in the lobby, Rosita used the the internet (Suprisingly, the internet was still useable. They checked news websites everyday but it was always the same old thing. They listed sites of military help and told you to stay in your homes and all of the things that they already knew. But. Well... all of the articles were dated from about 2 or 3 weeks back.) to map out exact directions to the school in Lakehurst for the second party and exact directions to the nearest Wal-Mart in Raven Heights, which was only 10 miles away from the hotel. She had also found the directions to a hunting store in the town which was near the department store. They were running low on ammunition as well as food and liquids to drink.

Tatiana was in the party going to the department store. Along with her was Bryanne, Lexi, Lleyton, Antoinette, Lucie, Eli, Scott and Natasha. The party going to actually get the girls were Alex, Maria, Jeff, Brandon, Aiden, Ethan, and Hilary. The ones staying at the hotel were Jimmy, Rosita, Anna Lena, and Amelie.

Tatiana pulled her thick hair into a ponytail. Her hair was dying for a good cutting. She glanced at her coffee table and spotted some of the polaroids she had taken recently. A picture of her playing cards with Amelie and Bryanne, her cheeks puffed up and her tongue sticking out. Scott and Jeff teeing off on the roof using their "golf clubs." That picture was perfect. You could see only their shadows against the setting sun.

There was a picture of Antoinette drinking a magarita, lounging on her blow up chair in the pool with a nasty look aimed at the camera and one of Alex looking very handsome and solider-like, a rifle over his shoulder and a ciggerette dangling out of his mouth.

The camera itself was laid next to the scattered photos. Lately, this was her only source of joy besides maybe Lexi and Bryanne. She was just depressed about alot of things. Tatiana was sick of waking up everyday and seeing zombies gazing up at her like she was a fresh piece of meat. Every day it seemed to be gray and miserable or raining and chilly. This was California but the weather sure wasn't acting like it.

She had alot of time on her hands when she wasn't doing chores around the hotel and spending some time with some of the other survivors. She either sat in her bed, curled in the covers or laying out on her balcony wrapped in the jacket she had found in the utility room. It was utterly depressing. Revolution, change, the smell of blood and pure death in the air every single minute. It was really getting to her.

Tatiana tried to shake this as she pulled herself up from her unmade bed. She couldn't be thinking of only herself at a time like this. She had to think about her friends here and the job she had to fufill. She also had those 4 girls trapped in the truck on her mind and it was eating at her. The sooner they got this over, the better.

She quietly turned the lights off in her room and pocketed her key card. She made her way silently into the hallway and she was met by no one as she bee lined towards the elevator and down to the first floor. When she got on the first floor, Tatiana seen everyone geared up and ready for the journey ahead.

Jimmy and Rosita were re-loading and checking the various guns and handing them out to everyone who was leaving while Amelie had Dylan on her lap and was reading to him from a battered Curious George book. Anna Lena had her white bible clutched in her pale hands and she was talking to Lexi and Eli and Alex was sitting by himself in the dining area, a ciggerette between his fingers and his rifle leaning against his leg. He looked deep in thought.

Tatiana made her way over to him and put her hand on his shoulder, startling him from whatever had him so lost in his own world. His dark hair fell into his eyes as he glanced up at her, a small, barely there smile appearing onto his lips.

"Hey," She said as she pulled up at chair next to him. She cupped her face in her hands and gazed at him as she did so very often. If she was an artist, Alex had the face she definately wanted to paint. He had perfect wispy, brown almost black hair and the deepest, mature brown eyes to match. He had a strong, square face and handsome features to go along with it. "What were you thinking about?"

"Oh," He said slowly, "Nothing much."

Tatiana smiled at him thoughtfully. Alex never really did tell her much about what he was thinking. She was 19 and he was 27, his thoughts were probally very complex and adult-like anyways. He had told Tatiana that he was married once before, a few years ago and he was working on a law degree during his marriage and was just about to start work at a good law firm when all of this broke out. He probally had alot of things going on inside of his head.

"Just be careful out there okay?" She said, a bit of laughter in her voice. "No heroics, 'kay?"

"Well, I guess just this once," Alex said, putting his ciggerette out into the ash tray and then putting his hands behind his head. Tatiana hated the smell of smoke and hated that he smoked and she had told him this many times before and whenever she did come around, she did notice that he put out his ciggerettes almost 100 of the time.

"Really." Tatiana said as Rosita came over with a gun for her. The piece of dangerous metal felt reassuring in her hands but still. Having a gun didn't mean that everything was going to be okay. The zombies could be everywhere, they could leak out from any corner or any shadows without so much as a shuffle or a grunt. Anything could happen, it was taking a risk to dare go out.

"Don't worry, I'll come back in one piece. Just tell me you will too," He said, looking at her serious with his ice cold gaze. Tatiana could guess he could be a whole mess of trouble in the court room. He could cut stone with those eyes of his with their deep, intense looks.

"I'll come back. Don't worry about that," She reassured him, touching him lightly on the shoulder again as she stood up to go over to Lexi and Bryanne.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Happy Halloween everyone! 


	27. Author's Note 2

Hey guys. Its me. Anna.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Life has been pretty insane lately, I just haven't found the time to write. Trust me, I have half a chapter in the writing though!

Just recently, on Saturday... It was a gorgeous afternoon... And then a big car crash happened near my school involving 2 cheerleaders from my school and one died instantly and the other girl, Katie, was in the hospital because the engine of the car basically crushed her legs. And just today, I walked into school. It was a cold but lovely friday, every friday is good and great.

And so I'm walking in the corrider for my first hour, Spanish II, and my friend Ben comes to tell me that Katie died. I was just in disbelief. Just yesterday, my math teacher had told me that she was doing fabulous. She had surgery and the doctors were finally going to take her out of the coma they had put her in and then... she just dies?

This was possibly the worst day of school I've ever experienced and I was only there for maybe an hour.

I guess at this time in my life, I don't want to really write about death... and zombies. All I can image in my mind right now is what my mom told me her friend's daughter saw as she drove by the wreckage: a flipped over SUV with a girl's limp body hanging out the window.

I know I'm going to get that update up soon... but until then... Keep me on your mind?

-Anna


	28. Because I Can See The Summer's Done

**Because I can see the summer's done**

_Hashing through the possibilities,  
They seem as endless as the sky.  
You seek the truth and the quiet breeze,  
But the air is too thin to reply.  
Well I know that's where I'll never be  
Because I can see the summer's done.  
I try to let the river flow in and out of me  
And pray I float the way I think I want;  
And pray I float at all._

_"Just be careful out there okay?"_

Tatiana reminded him just of his wife. Or. Well. Ex-wife. Yeah, ex-wife. Their features are exactly the same, their height, their youth, but Leni's hair was platinum blonde and her eyes were as sharp and bluer than any sky he had ever seen. They were both girls of rare beauty. Alex pulled his sweatshirt over his head as he continued to compare the girls.

Him and Leni had married young. When they had moved into their 2 bedroom apartment, they thought they had had it made. They were just like every young couple who had married young. Everything seemed perfect and just dandy but then things started getting tougher, the magic seemed to fade. Money was scarce and barely there, Alex was barely home because he had 2 jobs to support them, and Leni was non-stop complaining.

And then one day he walked into the apartment after getting off of his first job of the day (meat packing at a factory and studying for flight school in between) and all was quiet and dark. Leni wasn't there and he never saw her again after 2 years of rocky marriage. It probally was the worst day of his life and maybe the best.

Alex grabbed his rifle and got up from his chair and strode over to his group, the group that was going to rescue the girls. They were going to save those girls and nothing bad was going to happen and he was going to make it back here. He promised Tatiana and he wasn't going to break it.

* * *

"Don't be scared Hilary, there is nothing to be scared of," Maria said, turning back to face the girl from the front seat. They had used the exit door in the utility room, a door they had locked and placed boxes of tools in front of so it wouldn't open. Before that, they had taken out some of the zombies from the rooftop, taking out most of the ones that were quite close to the building and close to the vehicles they were taking.

Maria's group was taking her SUV, Antoinette's group was taking The Holliday's van. As they had rushed out of the building, blood had splattered onto her cheeks, which hadn't happened in a long time, a surge of adreneline had filled her as well. One of the zombies had gotten close to Hilary, running his scabby, black fingers down her arm, leaving streaks of crusty blood on them.

The young girl was freaked out, her face bright red and tears streaming down her face as she rubbed forcefully with her sweatshirt sleeve at the light streaks that ran down her arm. Maria grabbed the bottle of water she had brought along and she splashed a bit of it onto a napkin from the glovebox and she handed it to Hilary. Hilary snatched it out of Maria's fingertips and she continued to rub savagely at her arm until the streaks were gone and her skin was red and rubbed raw.

Maria faced the front of the SUV and glanced at Jeff, who was behind the wheel. He gave her a wide eyed look and then concentrated on the road as he picked up speed down the crowded road. There were cars littering the street and zombies hobbling around, reaching for them even if they were feet away. They sure knew what they wanted.

The SUV smelled like blood, rotten garbage, and a bittersweet smell of rotten fruit. It felt like ages, maybe a million years, since she had been in this truck the last time. On the fateful day... Maria shook her head, her high ponytail smacking her in the face as she did so. That was long ago, the past, her old life. This was her new life, these were her family now and they had 4 scared girls to rescue. She couldn't allow herself to think, she had to stay alert.

She slowly clutched at the rifle in her lap, the safety switched on. Jeff had his fingers tight against the black steering wheel and his dark eyes darted across the road, at every thing that moved. Even at the few golden and red leaves that passed by. In the backseat of her truck was Alex, Ethan, and Aiden. All of the men had grim, stony expressions on their faces as they watched through the tinted windows at the pitiful beasts struggling to get at the speeding car as it menuvered through the ghost cars and their brethren.

It was a tight fight into the truck and sitting in the cargo was equally grim Brandon and Hilary, who was wiping at her eyes now instead of her raw arm. Maria knew that this girl was young and scared and probally had parents lost somewhere. Maybe they could even be dead, but Maria tried not to think of that. Hilary had to toughen up or she wouldn't be making it back to the hotel.

One false move, one mistaken thought and bam! You could be in the crusty, bloody grip of a zombie and a chunk of flesh could be ripped from your neck.

Maria glanced out of the passenger side window, leaning her forehead against the cool glass. It was early morrning, the sky still a dark blue with hints of light, hints of a blazing sun about to rise. Streaming from the alley ways and broken shop windows were the zombies. Maria could remember when they could sprint, their jelly legs (if they had any) pumping and their drive for flesh keeping them going. Some could jog, but most just waddled or crawled.

She didn't know why this was happening but it didn't matter. It was a good thing. Those running zombies... Well, needless to say they were a fucking nightmare come true. Their faces had turned from blackened and bloody to pale, ashy, and caked with dried crimson. Maybe their were falling apart, slowly disintegrating. Maria didn't know for sure, but it was good. Maybe the zombies would all just fade to dust.

Well. That probally wouldn't happen. If something this fucking insane happened, why would they get a streak of good luck? It would be nice though.

The Holliday's van had been following closely behind them for the ride so far but they had just turned down another street. Inwardly, Maria wished them week. She wished luck for them all.

Maria glanced into the rearview mirror and saw something running at them. The creature definately stood out in front of the waddling, hobbling ashen zombies following them. This creature. His arms and legs were pumping like a track stars, his black eyes insane and maniac. This zombie blew past the others with a strength from somewhere Maria couldn't imagine. Jeff looked at Maria and saw her odd expression and too, glanced into the mirror.

"What the... hell?" He said slowly, his hands tightening around the leather steering wheel and his eyes glancing back and forth from the road to the running creature.

"Holy shit. Why is it running? Why isn't it walking like everyone else?" Hilary groaned, her voice thick from crying.

Maria reached for the rifle at her feet and her left hand groped for the safety as her right hand pressed the button to lower the window.

"You're going to take it out?" Jeff said, placing both hands strongly on the wheel and his eyes now on Maria as they barely made it past a sloppily parked red truck. Maria nodded, clicking out of her seatbeat and moving around in her seat. She pulled her head and arms out of the window, the wind whipping wildly at her and she pulled the gun out with her. She could feel someone grab the belt of her pants, just in case she fell out the window.

The walking zombies weren't a problem, but a running one was.

Maria took aim, struggling to keep ahold of the rifle as the wind tried to rip it from her grasp. As Jeff began to turn the truck down another street, Maria squeezed the trigger-

And she caught eyes with someone standing on the street.

Dead, milky white eyes. Down below those eyes were crusty black lips caked with grit, blood, and chips of bone. Maria felt a pair of fingers crawl across the soft skin of her forearm. The fingers felt wilted and scabby, nasty. Disgusting.

Maria screamed, pure terror and she left go of the gun she held in her hand.

The rifle clattered against the side of the SUV and Maria recoiled into the safety of the truck. The strap of the rifle was hooked onto her arm so it didn't fall to the fastly moving pavement, it merely clanged against the side of the truck.

A cold sweat began to drip out of every pore of her body and Maria began to breath heavily as she watched the buildings fly past the open window, a cold breeze pushing at her face. It seemed time began to slow. She had never been so up close to one of the living dead before and it seemed everything had lost its sound, the only sound that she could hear was the frantic thumps of her heart in her ears. She could feel Alex's hand on her shoulder and she glanced at him. his perfectly set lips moving but no words coming out. She felt words coming out of her own mouth but she didn't even know what she was saying.

Maria pulled her rifle into the car and she took a glance at her arm. It was perfectly fine, the toned muscle moving its way under her skin. She was fine. She wasn't going to be one of them and she was going to be fine. She was going to help those girls and go back to her new home and be safe, as safe as she could be.

Maria could now understand why Hilary had freaked out so much... She shook her head, wiping away the sweat that beaded down her forehead and temples with the back of her hand.

A mist had slowly begun to form and billow up from the ground and the sun was slowly making its way over the horizon and over the tops of the buildings and billboards as they slowly made their way onto the freeway, the zombies trailing behind them forgotten in a haze of freight.

* * *

_Dedicated to Katie and Kate._

_November 29th 2007 & November 24th 2007_

_Together in life, together in the after. Rest in peace._


	29. Don't Take Your Guns To Town

**Don't Take Your Guns To Town**

The Holliday van had sped off away from the hotel just as the SUV carrying their friends had, only they had taken off into diffrent directions. The SUV east, the Holliday van west. Tatiana held her legs to her chest as she sat in the back with Bryanne and Lexi at each of her sides, her knees tucked neatly under her chin.

Antoinette was at control of the wheel, her aviator sunglasses covering her emerald eyes. Tatiana thought she looked quite brave and fearless as her left hand shakily took the wheel and her right reached for her cup of coffee. Antoinette was so carefree sometimes, even in this entire mess of the world, this entire mess of a situation. Antoinette took a big drink of her coffee from a white thermos and she almost dropped it as a zombie came stumbling out the broken window of a tailor shop.

"Piece of shit...," She mumbled aimlessly. Antoinette was smart and cool, just like Tatiana wanted to be. Tatiana knew she would get this job done and she would make sure with the life of her that no one would get hurt. She had to say that her very best friends were gathered together in this old van taken straight from the seventies. She couldn't bear to live with herself if something would happen to them.

It made her wonder how she had made it this long. These long agonizing months of despair and fear. It was them that pulled her out of the darkness.

Scott sat in the passenger seat, his hands glued to the radio even though as he clicked the dial numerous times, all that filled the van was static and white noise. On the other side of Tatiana, Lexi, and Bryanne were Eli, Lucie, Natasha, and Lleyton. Each of them had expressionless faces, faces that didn't betray their minds of their thoughts.

Tatiana glanced over at Bryanne, whose almost white hair was held high atop of her head in a ponytail tied with a hot pink scrungie. She was sitting nervously in her place next to Eli and Lexi and ever so often, she looked out the yellow tinted windows, her ponytail bobbing with every mood she made. She looked sheepish and sick, her skin almost greenish.

Tatiana placed a hand on her knee and Bryanne looked at her, a delicate rosy pink comming to her cheeks. Tatiana could take a small chance to guess that Bryanne was trying to search for the casino that her family had went to. She wanted just a glance for a billboard or maybe a quick peek of a tall, ominously bright building but there was no such chance in the deep, golden morning light clashing with the deep blues of the early morning sky.

Tatiana turned away from her friend, her heart wrenching with pain and her stomach flittering with nervous excitedment. She turned to face the window to watch the lonely brick buildings pass by, to see the sunbeams bounce off car windsheilds moist with dew, to watch shells of men, women, and children's forms meterialized out of the silvery morning mist.

She placed her finger tips up to the glass and drew a pattern in the fog that had built up on the glass.

Antoinette dodged abanonded cars stuck on the sides of roads and even in the middle. She sandwiched her way through trucks and cars and did her best to avoid splattering the zombies against the windsheild. As Antoinette guided the aging van onto the highway, they all got a good look at the sea of cars left in a puzzle on the pavement.

"Hold on you guys," Antoinette said, adjusting her overly large sunglasses on her model-esque face, "This could be a bumpy ride."

Everyone lurched forward in their seats as she stepped on the gas pedal and began to weave the van through the cars, occasionally the loud ear shattering sound of metal sliding against metal filled the van as the outside of the van scraped against the lonely vehicles.

As she took advantage of an almost clear space of cracked pavement, a dark flash flew at the van. Antoinette screamed as she her foot went searching for the break until the figure revealed itself as a charred, bony zombie with blackened clothes and burnt, sagging skin. Her foot steadied on the accelerator and Tatiana's hand searched wildly for something to hold on to. She made up her mind quickly and grabbed onto an arm rest on her chair.

With the speed of the van soaring from 45 to 60, Antoinette gripped onto the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles whitening agains the worn material. The zombie crashed against the glass and could only be seen for a moment and the dusty form flew over the top of the car and slammed into the pavement, crumpling against it. An arm, as limp as a dolls, was stuck against the windowsheild wiper as Antoinette, slowing down, switched them on so it could flap off.

Tatiana let go of the arm rest and placed her hands in her lap, a grim expression on her face and sick feeling in her gut.

She was used to this smell of death around her and the mindset that it gave her but... The zombies were decaying and turning dusty. The sense of mortality around her was thick. Death had always scared her and this entire journey had been an entire mindtrip. It gave her a dizzing feeling about her. Something could happen any moment right now and she could be killed.

The van could blow up and one of her friend's guns could go off at random. Anything. Or she could be bitten by one of the fading zombies and then, she would slowly become one of them.

Chills creeped up and down her spine as she huddled against herself. Tatian felt an arm slither around her shoulders and it was Lexi who had her strong, reassuring arm around her childlike shoulders. Bright Lexi gave her a golden smile, her perfect teeth dazzling her and for a second, she could almost forget that they were on there way to maybe even certain death.

They were on an afternoon drive to have a lovely picnic beside the local beach on the oceanfront and traffic was crazy. Everyone wanted a taste of the salty air and the blue-green sea.

* * *

Authors Note: Wow. Stockholm Syndrome is 1 years old. How exciting!

I'm sorry I haven't really been writing lately. I just got finished up with exam week and now I'm really ready to get cracking on this story.

Thanks for all of the messages and lovely reviews guys, really. Have any requests for the story? Just let me know!

-Anna


	30. The Calm Before The Storm

**The Calm Before The Storm**

Rosita shimmied her way through the kitchen like a dancer, her onyx black hair flowing around her like a veil as she took a sip of her steaming hot coffee and at the same time stirred the large pot of chicken noodle soup she was heating for when everyone came back. It was exciting to her, to have more people coming to the hotel. They were young girls. It was a good time to become a matronly figure again. It had been such a long time...

Amelie sat near the refriderator on a chair she had dragged in from the dining room and held her cup in her frail hands, using them to warm them.

"Being here," She said, "Makes me really miss being in France. Riding my bicycle through the busy streets, whizzing past confused tourists and goregous women in their finely made, expensive clothes. I never had the money to have clothes like that. No, never. My mama, she was a clothes washer and my father a laborer in a factory. We didn't have the money to spare for such things so I wore skirts that I had made for myself and the cheapest hand-me down blouses from my older sister Oxana. I wore her hand me down shoes too. I can remember putting old newspaper in them for there were so many holes."

Rosita was intoxicated with the elderly woman's stories and her lightly accented voice. For a moment, it helped her forget that the people she had grown so dearly close with for the past few weeks could be in possible danger. Or maybe something could have even went terribly wrong and they could even be - _No. Don't think that._ Rosita settled the large stirring spoon she was using down next to the bubbling pot and she leaned down to turn the large stove to a lower setting.

She leaned against the shiny countertop and grabbed onto her hot mug and held it in her hands as Amelie did.

"Oh, it was so beautiful there, in Paris. The looming shadow of the Effiel Tower at sundown, the brilliant lights of the city during the nightime. So lovely...," Amelie continued. She paused to take a sip of rich coffee to sooth her parched throat. Her watery blue eyes sparkled brilliantly with a light in them that Rosita had never seen before.

She didn't seem to look as old as she did. It seemed the talk of France, of her homeland, had brought youth to her. She seemed 10 years younger and the deep set wrinkles in her skin seemed to smooth out and fade and the silver of her hair seemed to be replaced with what Rosita could see as a deep, buttery blonde.

"And what about you, dear?" The elderly but youthful woman asked Rosita, "What about your childhood? Your life before this? Do you think about it much right now?"

Rosita crossed her feet at the ankles and she began to contemplate the questions slowly, watching the brown milky liquid settle in her cermaic mug.

"I grew up here, in California, almost on the border. I grew up in a very small home with my mom, my dad, my grandma, my grandpa, and my little sister Adella. It was very cramped and uncomfortable, but we made it through. I didn't have many friends growing up but I always was able to go home and play with Adella after she came home from Kindergarden and always I had Grandma to bake cookies and make tamales with and Grandpa to help plant tomatoes and carrots in the garden behind our house," Rosita said, knowing she was babbling but the look on the old Frenchwoman's face was that of happiness and peacefullness.

Rosita could tell that Amelie was trying to imagine her little dusty home on the border of California and Nevada, with their one car (a beat up rusted machine with torn up seats and a funny smell to it). The small Spanish neighboorhood that she lived in and the block parties that they had almost every week in summer full of Sangria, Tamales, baked rice, and old chipper music sung in their native language, played on a beat up record player.

"And then I met Jimmy when I went to college," Rosita said, looking up from her coffee and smiling at Amelie who was simply glowing.

"It was a community college, of course, but none the less it was perfect. I was the only one to go to college in my family. The only one to graduate as well. Jimmy and I lived in the same dorm and we ended up meeting and well... You see how it ended. Married and soon with two children."

And that is when she cut herself off. Amber and Ashley. Rosita would rather not talk about them. Her brain was like a newspaper and on that certain section, instead of picking through it and dissecting it throughly, she would rather flip the page and scan through the funny pages.

"And, dear?" Amelie asked, her snow colored brows raising just a bit. Amelie knew that there was something holding her back and Rosita wasn't going to cross that line. No. She wouldn't. Amelie sighed, so light that Rosita could barely hear it and the elderly woman set her mug down on the countertop and stood up, streching her old limbs.

"I always wished I had more children than the one I had. I always imagined having five children for some reason. I grew up with nothing and hand me downs and still, I wanted many children. With sticky hands and smiling faces and cuts and bruises that only kisses could cure. But I couldn't have children, I just could not. I had two still borns. There was something wrong with me that no doctor could cure but somehow I was still able to concieve one baby"

"And Rosita, find yourself lucky that you created two beautiful children, girls. They would want you to be happy, no matter where they are now or what they are doing and even, dare I say it, alive," Amelie continued, her speech getting more rapid. Rosita grew rigid, her body tensing up as the Frenchwoman talked of these children that she barely knew. Amelie was crossing into uncharted territory.

"I think maybe it would be best for you to try for more," Amelie said, folding her hands in her lap as she sat back down after streching. Rosita could tell her eyes were wide so she closed them and took a deep breath and turned back to the soup and began to stir it. She was angry, deeply angry. The blood boiled in her veins. How dare she say that Amber and Ashley could be dead. Rosita sometimes believed it too, when she felt the most hopeless and was at her lowest but then, deep at night, when she could sleep and tossed and turned, she could see their faces the brighest, the best. And she could tell that they were alive, deep in her heart.

"No. Children don't have a place in this new world, Amelie. There is no room for the happiness that they bring," Rosita said, not so sure of her words as she gripped the cross that hung around her neck on a gold chain.

* * *

Alex knows, somewhere deep within his conciousness, that he is dreaming. He knows this because he is running down the stairs leading to the subway to catch the L Train going to down town Los Angeles with a pink baby carrier strapped to his chest and a baby screaming and crying in his ears. Everyone on the damp way to the subway is looking at him as though hs is an escaped mental patient with his backpack flailing around his shoulders and the baby strapped to his chest is dressed head to toe in pink down to the light pink beanie on her head to the matching pink booties on her tiny feet.

He raced to the subway, which was closing its doors and was slowly building speed to leave. As fast as he could run, he tried to make it but couldn't and he knew he would be late to work and Irina's babysitter would be worried sick about them but he had been up early that morning because the baby wouldn't stop crying and wouldn't take a bottle.

The subway was racing into a big, bright, burning light and Alex began to notice darkness creeping towards him and then, suddenly, Irina stops crying. Maybe the whoosh of the subway has calmed her, he hoped and that would slightly ease his troubles. It was easier to wait for the next train to come and worry about being late at the factory without his 2 month old sister screaming bloody murder.

He reached down to run his rough, worn fingers against her soft, silky cheek and all he could feel was tough, cold plastic. Terrified, he looked down to see a plastic white doll sitting in the carrier instead of Irina. He pulled the doll out of the carrier and looked into the fake, blinking blue eyes and looked over the short cropped black hair and he dropped it as he flinched as he heard a distinct sound behind him.

The hungry moan of a zombie, the gut wrenching sound of shuffling feet. Alex spun around and he could hear the sound of the Plastic Irina rushing across the pavement of the ground and being sucked into the deep black abyss before him. Standing in front of it was the decaying, blackened form of Irina in her white nightgown.

She would have been perfect if her skin wasn't sagged and wrinkled, black and frosted with ash and blood. Her usually jet black, shining hair was greasy, inky, and nappy and slowly her hands reached from her side. And she lunged at him, wrapping her hands around his neck, gripping it tightly enough to bruise and she sunk her blackened teeth into his warm flesh.

Alex slowly stirred against the window he was leaning on, his breath fogging up the window, making the landscape a blur of grey from the buildings and blue from the promising sky. He sat up slowly form his position, his shoulders and neck sore from an hour an a half of awkward position. He rubbed his hand down his face, warming it up with his pleasantly warm fingertips. Alex pulled his sweatshirt tighter around his body, a chill running up and down it and it wasn't all from the chill of the clear morning air filtering into the SUV from the windows.

He wanted to put his nightmare far behind him. The pallid skin tone of Irina, her zombified form, everything. Just forget it. And if he could, with all of his strength, he wished he could put his entire ordeal behind him. He looked out the window and watched as the blue sky and faint, whisps of clouds hung over the buildings and cars. How much more fucked up could things get? Knowing his luck lately, it was defiantely going to get worse.


End file.
